Issues Evolution Model
The issues evolution model is a framework for studying issue realignment.
Description
The model characterizes party realignments as the product of persistent and salient issues. These are issues that remain on agendas and platforms for years on end, and that present as easy opinions (i.e. for or against, no nuance).
In contrast to critical elections theory, the model predicts that realignment is caused by party leaders, and that it is an entirely gradual process.
Reading Notes
Issue Evolution, Population Replacement, and Normal Partisan Change, Edward G. Carmines and James A. Stimson, 1981
Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics, Edward G. Carmines and James A. Stimson, 1989
Abortion: Evidence of an Issue Evolution, Greg D. Adams, 1997