Fusion Parties as Discipline Machines

Political parties that combine minor‑party branding with legal hooks (e.g., fusion voting, statutory disenrollment authority) can operate as translocal discipline machines: they endorse challengers, enforce orthodoxy through expulsions, and export coordinated primary pressure beyond their home state. The model matters because it converts organizational capacity plus a small legal tweak into a durable mechanism for reshaping party coalitions and candidate selection. — If fusion‑style parties professionalize disciplinary tools, they can alter national party politics by manufacturing primary outcomes, shifting ideological balance, and forcing major parties to police their own ranks.