Electoral Realignment and the Outlook for American DemocracyUPNE, 2007 - 220 pages Journalists and the general public have seized upon the notion of "red" and "blue" states to better understand the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, but this conception of political geography is seldom placed in historical perspective. In Electoral Realignment and the Outlook for American Democracy, Arthur Paulson analyzes the impact of ideological polarization on political parties and electoral realignment in the contemporary United States. Recalling the extensive realignment that occurred between 1964 and 1972 (with the contentious 1968 election as its fulcrum) and the three decades of split-ticket voting and "divided government" (most often featuring a Republican president and a Democratic Congress) that followed, Paulson recognizes the resurgence of party-line voting in the last decade. A new, ideologically polarized party system--resembling a responsible party system more than has ever been the case in the American experience--has taken shape. The American polity continues to realign, and Paulson discusses how the forces at work are reshaping the party system in particular and the health of American democracy in general. Although the United States is an "advanced" democracy, he demonstrates the need to view even American democracy as "developing." If American democracy is to thrive, Paulson says, it must change to meet the realities of a rapidly changing world. The realigned system presents challenges to national unity, but it also offers opportunities for debating compelling issues that demand extreme choices, including zero-sum economics in a postindustrial society, globalization and the international economy, development and underdevelopment around the world, and terrorism, war, and peace. Strong on realignment theory, Paulson's timely and authoritative study incorporates the latest data from the 2000 and 2004 elections into his analysis, and it offers vital perspectives on the outlook for the 2008 election. Scholars and students of the American political system, American government, comparative politics, political theory, electoral politics, and American political culture will embrace this text, which easily lends itself to classroom adoption. |
Contents
Introduction Realignment and American Politics I | 1 |
Ideological Polarization and Party Change | 55 |
Critical Realignment | 115 |
Incumbency Party and Ideology 19722004 | 124 |
Realignment and the Study of American Elections | 146 |
Toward a ResponsibleParty System? | 161 |
Epilogue Political Parties Public Policy | 177 |
Notes | 187 |
| 203 | |
| 213 | |
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1964-1972 Ideological Alignment Almanac of American American Electorate American Party System American political parties analysis Bryan campaign candidates Carter chapter civil rights concept of realignment Congress congressional elections Congressional Quarterly conservative coalition conservative Democrats conservative Republicans critical realignment Deal realignment debate delegates Demo Democratic Party Democratic presidential divided government Eisenhower elec electoral change electoral coalitions electoral realignment emergence front-runner Goldwater governing coalition historically ideological polarization incumbent Ladd liberal Democrats liberal Republicans majority party Mayhew ment midterm Nixon outcomes partisan party decay party system Party Unity policy agenda political parties Political Science presidential elections presidential nomination primaries Reagan realigning election realignment theory reelection Republican Party responsible-party system result secular realignment Senate Solid South South Carolina South Dakota southern split-ticket voting Street faction swing vote TABLE tion twenty-first century umbrella parties University Press V. O. Key victory Virginia voters Walter Dean Burnham Washington William Jennings Bryan Willkie York