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Data on the state-level ERA ratification process are used here to address leading theoretical debates about the role of social movements, public opinion, and political climate on policy outcomes, the goal being to test the claim that these factors depend on each other. Social movement organizations, public opinion, and political party support all influenced the ratification process. But the effects are modified when the interactive nature of public opinion and electoral competition, and political party support and movement organizational strength, are tested. In particular, the effect of social movement organizations on ratification was amplified in the presence of elite allies, and legislators responded most to favorable public opinion under conditions of low electoral competition. These findings are used to suggest a more integrated theory of policy outcomes that considers interactive and contingent effects of movements, public opinion, and political climate.
In March 1972, the United States Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and sent it on to the fifty states for ratification. By 1979, three-fourths of the states were required to have ratified the proposed Twenty-Seventh Amendment for it to become part of the U.S. Constitution (this date was later extended to 1982). The pace of ratification was uneven. After a brief flurry of successful votes in 1972, ratification gradually declined and then stopped entirely. By 1982, it became clear that the ERA would be just three states short of becoming part of the United States Constitution.
The ERA is often discussed in the scholarly literature as an example of policy failure (Berry 1986; Mansbridge 1986; Burris 1983; Boles 1982). ' In one sense, of course, it should be seen as a failure, because the ERA did not become part of the U.S. Constitution. Nevertheless, thirty-five of the fifty states did ratify the amendment, so it may also be seen as an example of a successful policy outcome at the state level in those states that ratified it. Although the amendment was initially framed as a national issue, it soon became a matter for intense state debate during the ratification process (Berry 1986). In this article, we seek to understand the process of state-level ratification of the ERA.
During the early 1970s, the women's movement was enjoying widespread support in the United States,...