An excellent new book lays out a concept that we shall include in future editions of the text. In No Middle Ground: How Informal Party Organizations Control Nominations and Polarize Legislatures, Seth E. Masket coins an important and useful term: informal party organization, or IPO. A deliberate play on David Mayhew’s traditional party organization (TPO), the term refers to a set of legislative leaders, interest groups, activists and other party figures that can play a dominant role in deciding party nominations. Masket tells how IPOs took shape and how they retain power by channeling campaign resources to candidates who cluster at the ends of the American political spectrum. Click here to see my review of the book.
