politically relevant actors, i ncluding voters and especially activists. Party leaders need the support of
activists (Aldrich 1983, see also Masket 2002, 2005) and bend to the activists’ pressures.
Depending on how open the party system is to new parties, ideologues may pressure newly
forming parties as well as existing ones. Since they operate by shaping the preferences of political actors,
from voters to activists to public officials, they can create competition between multiple parties with
similar constituencies. Parties either respond to the new ideology or risk electoral damage.
It is also important to note that the operation of ideology on party need not be conscious. But it
usually is: Ideologues actively seek to get a party to champion them. And yet this coordination does not
require a master plan. As ideologues see a particular party becoming sympathetic to them, they will begin
to associate themselves with that party. That in turn will associate their ideas with the party, and
eventually, voters and activists who adopt the ideology will take control of the party. That is, unless the
party resists.
Sometimes it does. For example, the Whig and Democratic parties resisted the growing slavery-
based ideology, because each party had members in both the North and the South, and the party
leadership wanted to keep it that way. Acquiescing in the new ideological division would have threatened
the intersectional alliance. This is especially interesting for the Whigs, since the new ideology was
promising. It could (and for the Republicans, eventually would) end Democratic dominance. But the risk
involved was apparently too great.
Whig and Democratic politicians alike also may have resisted the new ideology because of the
longstanding connections they had with their own parties. Cotton Whig politicians may have been drawn
to the pro-slavery ideology that Democrats eventually defended, but that meant abandoning their allies in
the united front that had gotten them elected. Switching to a new party means that lifetime of connections
has to be built up from scratch. The same is true of Northern Democrats (and for the decision of Northern
Whigs to switch to the Republican Party).
Party resisted ideology again in the 1950s and 1960s. Southern Democrats had political
connections and loyalties to the Democratic Party, but were ideologically conservative on social issues.
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Convention