| Research Abstract |
The Republican Party in the United States has undergone a rather dramatic transformation from a party dominated by the moderates to one overwhelmingly controlled by the conservatives in the period between late 1960s and the mid-1990. It is true that some of the factors such as the change in the South and the increasing acceptance of Reaganism among the wider electorate, which many prior research had pointed out as causes for the transformation, were responsible for the rise of the conservatives in the party. Any serious research, however, must start by recognizing the fact that the transformation since the late 1960s took place without "critical elections," while most of the changes in the past in the nature of U.S. political parties occurred at and brought about by critical elections and the change in the party system. What is needed now is a new conceptual tool to grasp the more gradual transformation that could take place without critical elections. In this regard, this research project has focused on the transformation of the coalitions of the groups, political movements, and social movements that are Republican Party oriented. They four-year research has paid special attention to the so called Wednesday Meeting held by Americans for Tax Reform where most of the conservative groups that are officially outside the Republican Party but are trying to help it. Since the mid-1990s, there emerged thick and multi-layered networks of conservatives, including activists, politicians at the federal, state, and local levels, lobbyists, think tank researchers, staffers on the Hill, journalists, and leaders of various advocacy groups. The conservatives liked with the networks have been successful in mobilizing many kinds of resources such as money, votes, volunteers, policy ideas, and promising candidates. It seems that these networks have now started to spread all over the country, penetrating even the state politics.
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