"National Economic Changes and State Government, 1800-1913.".

This paper studies the effect of national economic changes on party swings in state legislative seats and party changes in governorships in a historical context. The period in question covers an era when the economy was largely unregulated by the national government, and the onus fell to state governments to handle the problems related to fluctuating interest rates, inflation and deflation, and bank panics. We posit, then, that the electoral prospects of parties in state government should be affected by changes in the national economic situation to a greater extent than observed in modern studies. We expect to find that voters punished majority parties at the state level when the economy took a downturn, especially during bank panics and periods of deflation, as these governments were the principal actors in economic regulation. This will add to the existing literature on economics and state politics by expanding the scope of study to a period when economic changes were more pronounced and state governments played a larger role in the banking and financial sectors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]