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PREFACE TO POPULISM: A SOCIAL ANALYSIS OF MINOR PARTIES IN NEBRASKA POLITICS, 1876-1890
Abstract
This dissertation concerns agrarian third-party movements in Nebraska between 1876 and 1890. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the nature of the electoral support for these parties so as to determine the degree to which there was continuity in their base of support from one election to another. The political behavior of the Nebraska electorate was analyzed by correlating specific socioeconomic variables derived from census data with specific political variables derived from abstracts of elections. The resulting correlations were used to determine the degree to which specific socioeconomic groups supported agrarian third parties in late nineteenth-century Nebraska. The variables in question were agricultural, occupational, and ethnocultural in nature. The political variables concern the gubernatorial elections between 1876 and 1890 and the special referenda on such issues as woman suffrage and prohibition. The vote totals for each party or political cause are correlated with relevant socioeconomic variables for the purpose of determining the social bases of support for each. The parties under investigation include the Greenbackers, Anti-Monopolists, National Unionists, Union Laborites, Populists, and Prohibitionists. The major parties are also analyzed for purposes of comparison. All of the data from which the relevant variables were formulated come from four Nebraska counties: Platte, Saunders, Hall, and Lancaster. These counties were selected for detailed analysis because their locations, economic characteristics, and ethnocultural composition exemplify the state of Nebraska as it was in the late nineteenth century. Although quantitative methodologies are utilized throughout this study, traditional methods and materials are also used. Analysis of the evidence presented in this study suggests that the supporters of third-party protest movements tended to be members of rural occupational groups, while their ethnocultural affiliations tended to be pietistic in nature. Rural occupational groups such as the farm ownership class were more inclined to support such parties as the Anti-Monopolists, Greenbackers, and Populists than were urban occupational groups such as merchants, professionals, and laborers. Support for these parties was much stronger among farmers who were members of pietistic ethnocultural groups, such as the Scandinavians. Farmers who were German or Bohemian in cultural background tended to oppose them. Correlational analysis of support for the National Union Party and the Union Labor Party lead to different conclusions than those correlations involving the other parties. These minor parties received greater support from urban occupational groups than from rural occupational groups. This discrepancy can be explained by their pro-labor ideological orientation. Both the National Unionists and the Union Laborites made greater efforts at attracting the labor vote than did such parties as the Anti-Monopolists. Simultaneously, they tended to de-emphasize those issues which were of concern to farmers. There was therefore no single political constituency that consistently supported third-party movements from one election to another. On the contrary, the base of support for these movements often changed dramatically between elections.
Subject Area
American history
Recommended Citation
BRIEL, RONALD C, "PREFACE TO POPULISM: A SOCIAL ANALYSIS OF MINOR PARTIES IN NEBRASKA POLITICS, 1876-1890" (1981). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8113279.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8113279