The effect of context on third parties and third-party support in the United States.

摘要

The dissertation explores third parties from a contextual perspective, moving away from the traditional view of third party support as being merely the product of anti-party or anti-system sentiment. I study how context affects third party support in modern presidential elections, the development of third party voting in the 1800s through an empirical case study of Vermont from 1841--1854, and third party behavior in an electoral context that allows cross-endorsements (fusion balloting).