Some Functional Aspects of Stability and Change in Voting

Examined here is a seemingly erratic voting behavior of a growing suburban electorate during the 1950's that went increasingly Republican in national elections, while it simultaneously switched to Democratic on the state level, and erupted into a "townspeople" third-party split locally. Survey data are from stratified samples of party members. An index of partisanship used as a dependent variable reveals high party loyalty among the majorities of non-switchers, and low partisanship among changers. Data support and extend a theory by Berelson and Parsons that non-rational voting of individuals develops into a political system with mechanisms to insure both its stability and flexibility. Religion is seen as a major cross-cutting factor in partisanship.