The primary research objective of this project is to produce a data set which describes the contemporary situation of party activism and organization in the eleven southern states. Though this has not been undertaken previously for any region of the United States, the objective is particulary important in a region undergoing significant political transition, a region in which grassroots party organizational changes are likely to impact national party politics. More importantly, the project offers the possibility for analysis of the role of political parties as one of the political organizations in linkage politics. In assessing the role of parties in linkage at the grassroots, and in party systems on a statewide basis, the project's findings will give insight into the role of parties in linkage and their relationships to other linkage institutions such as campaign organizations, interest groups, and the like. Research analysts from each of the eleven states will undertake comparable research activities. Utilizing common instruments, the researchers will collect several types of data for each state, including: (1) individual data from mail surveys of samples of Democratic and Republican party precinct committee members; (2) individual data from the entire universe of Democratic and Republican party county chairs; (3) aggregate data for the counties and states; and, (4) historical data about Democratic and Republican party organization and party activists at other party levels. The investigation should encourage replication because of its sufficiently broad data baseline and should have a catalytic effect on systematic field research about political parties. The data base created will be made available to other scholars interested in the area through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan.
