| Abstract
| - Two broad categories of variables have been used to explain the dynamics of national forces on congressional elections: presidential and party-related forces. Present research has emphasized presidential forces in analyzing congressional election outcomes, especially with respect to the impact of economic conditions, but this emphasis has resulted in a lack of attention to other variables that are linked to the major parties rather than incumbent presidents. Meaningful empirical relationships may have been inadvertently disregarded because they contradict expectations derived from an “incumbency hypothesis.” This article suggests that there are party-related forces operating on congressional elections, aside from party affiliation, that provide consistent and long-term electoral advantages to candidates of the parties, irrespective of which party controls the presidency. We argue that the economic policy emphases and historical records of the major parties interact with economic conditions such as unemployment and inflation to yield advantages that accrue to the candidates at election time; these effects are termed economic partisan advantages.
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