Party dynamics

Part I the voting behavior of key urban support groups, the bastions of earlier Democratic successes, will be ana lyzed in the context of two massive migrations of Americans that, like most migratory have had major destabilizing effects on existing social and political cleavages. In the first, millions of South ern Blacks, primarily rural in origin, have journeyed to the old cities of the North, particularly to the large cities in the East and Midwest a massive influx that has made racial polarity no longer just a Southern political dimension but a national one as well. In the second wave, the migration of huge numbers of Whites to the suburban fringes of these densely populated great cities has pro vided major socio-political challenges to a party whose strength was based to a great extent upon White urban supporters. Not only has the composition of the urban population changed drastically in these Northern cities in only a few decades, but vital sources of potential Democratic electoral strength-Catholics, labor union ists, and other people of the great cities-have left the environment of their political origins for a new and different life-style in the suburbs. Part I will be, in effect, an extensive analysis of political change among the traditionally supportive urban groups of the old Democratic coalition in the context of rapidly changing cities and suburbs.

In Part II, the impact of changing support among these criti cal groups of the Democratic coalition will be followed into the intra-party political arena, particularly into leadership and activist conflict in national nomination politics. Here the focus will fall heavily upon the internal party battles between certain key factions of the Democratic Party as changes in traditional group support in the mass electorate are translated into efforts by new political ac tivists to gain control of the principal resource of American party power the presidential nomination. It is in this battle to select the party's candidate that the various competing elements clash most vividly for power, for in the absence of any strong national party apparatus to seize, genuine intra-party power is primarily gained by shaping the choice of the party's presidential nominee.
Part III will compare and contrast the nature of the two rather distinct arenas of presidential candidacy the intra-party and inter-party universes-in order to assess the changing shape and dynamics of conflict in the American electorate What changes have occurred in the relationships among various activists seeking political influence in the Democratic Party? What new dynamics have affected the linkage between these competitive party elites and party rank and file? And as the intensity and scope of conflict rapidly broaden within the majority party, how do these changes affect the American electorate and the American party system as a whole? In brief, Part III seeks to clarify at least some of the critical relationships between electoral cores and party corps as they interact first in the choice of a presidential candidate and then again in reappraisal of their handiwork in the November gen eral election.