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The Realignment of 1964?
Author(s) -
Buchanan Scott E.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.259
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 1555-5623
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.2002.tb00638.x
Subject(s) - south carolina , presidential system , voting , political science , white (mutation) , public administration , geography , work (physics) , archaeology , law , politics , engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , mechanical engineering
Most prior research states that the 1964 presidential election was a critical realignment among a majority of southern white voters in the Deep South states. The thesis of this research is that an undetected long‐range secular realignment may have been at work in these five states. Past research has been based almost exclusively on survey data. While survey data is invaluable, it is limited to the questions asked of respondents. Using county‐level data, this article analyzes the 1960 and 1964 presidential elections in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. While this type of data has its limitations, it can give an indication of whether Republican voting was taking place in the Deep South before 1964. The findings of this research suggest that widespread Republican voting in Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina was present before 1964, while Alabama and Georgia were more characteristic of a rapid, critical realignment.