It's not easy being green, white, red, and blue: constituency representations versus electoral competition in the Wisconsin Green Party

Hughes, Ceri 2022. It's not easy being green, white, red, and blue: constituency representations versus electoral competition in the Wisconsin Green Party. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 35 , pp. 27-45. 10.1007/s10767-020-09365-5

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Abstract

The Wisconsin Green Party, a state affiliate of the US Green Party, is a third party in a two-party system. The US electoral system is not kind to third parties; 1949 was the last time a third party was represented in the US Congress, in the 2016 presidential election, just 1% of voters in Wisconsin voted for the Green Party candidate. Ethnographic fieldwork combined with in-depth interviews for this study finds that the policies and practices of the party may be inhibiting its efforts to grow support and improve its electoral standing. This paper details how the party operates in a narrow window of antiparty sentiment, with the emphasis on the intersection of their four core policy pillars, and party practices of ‘being the message’ serving to deter their two likeliest sources of new support; the logic of constituency representation given primacy over electoral competition. These issues, though currently acting as constraints on the party, potentially however also afford long-term opportunity for the party.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Publisher:	Springer Verlag (Germany)
ISSN:	0891-4486
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 March 2021
Date of Acceptance:	28 May 2020
Last Modified:	06 Nov 2023 21:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/140029

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