The Democratic Party’s 50-State Strategy: Reinvigorating an Apathetic Electorate
Abstract
The role of the electorate has long been manipulated by the national political parties in the United States into different electoral sects, creating a division between those states defined as “battleground†states and thoseoverlooked as “fly-over†states. As a result, those left in the ideological minority were disempowered in their ability to affect government and issue politics on a national level. As national party politics became narrowerand more focused, party identification dropped and voter participation slumped. In the past four years, the Democratic Party has pledged an end to this fragmented approach to politics by implementing a new approach spearheaded by Howard Dean’s “50-State Strategy.†This paper evaluates the approach of the 50-State Strategy by examining how it deals with the contemporary problems of the electorate and assessing its effectiveness as an election strategy for a national political party.Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
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