Party and Policy in the States

Current theory and research in American state politics challenge us to examine the relationship between the party in control of state government and changes in welfare spending in each of the fifty states in separate longitudinal analyses over thirty years. Party-policy linkages are found in only twenty of the states. States are classified by both party competition and the policy-relevance of their parties. The theoretical distinction between competitive parties and policy-relevant parties is developed, and suggestions are made for future research on class-based and non-class-based party systems in the states.