The study of electoral realignments is one of the most influential and intellectually stimulating enterprises undertaken by American political scientists. Realignment theory has been seen as a science able to predict changes, and generations of students, journalists, pundits and political scientists have been trained to be on the lookout for "signs" of new electoral realignments. In this work a political scientist argues that the essential claims of realignment theory are wrong - that American elections, parties and policy-making are not, and never were, reconfigured according to the realignment calendar. David Mayhew examines 15 key empirical claims of realignment theory in detail and shows us why each in turn does not hold up under scrutiny. It is time, he insists, to open the field to new ideas. We might, for example, adopt a more nominalistic, sceptical way of thinking about American elections that highlights contingency, short-term election strategies, and valence issues. Or we might examine such broad topics as bellicosity in early American history, or racial questions in much of our electoral history. But we must move on from an old orthodoxy and failed model of illumination.
Electoral Realignments
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[A] lucidly argued and stimulating book. -- Alan Ehrenhalt, New Republic
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The Yale ISPS Series
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7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Its time to update your course reading lists,
By ab "ab" (bcs) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Electoral Realignments: A Critique of an American Genre (Hardcover)
Mayhew offers a much needed critiqe of this the realignment literature. Many of us were subject to great works of Key, Burnham, E.E.S., Sundquist, ect... and Mayhew challenges each of their theories piece by piece. A monumental work challenges others to take up the great task of creating a new method to think of partisan change.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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partisan realignment, party ideologies, constitutional commentary, realignments genre, realignments calendar, realignments perspective, realigning change, major policy innovations, electoral realignments, realignment theory, critical realignment, valence issues Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, United States, Walter Dean Burnham, The Realignments Perspective, The Cyclical Dynamic, World War, Dynamics of the Party System, New Deal, Civil War, Princeton University Press, American Political Science Review, Oxford University Press, Supreme Court, Brookings Institution, Party Government, The Functional Approach, Framing the Critique, Journal of Politics, San Francisco, Harvard University Press, Pressure Groups, University of Chicago Press, Stages of Political Development, Social Science History, Paul Allen Beck Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
partisan realignment, party ideologies, constitutional commentary, realignments genre, realignments calendar, realignments perspective, realigning change, major policy innovations, electoral realignments, realignment theory, critical realignment, valence issues Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, United States, Walter Dean Burnham, The Realignments Perspective, The Cyclical Dynamic, World War, Dynamics of the Party System, New Deal, Civil War, Princeton University Press, American Political Science Review, Oxford University Press, Supreme Court, Brookings Institution, Party Government, The Functional Approach, Framing the Critique, Journal of Politics, San Francisco, Harvard University Press, Pressure Groups, University of Chicago Press, Stages of Political Development, Social Science History, Paul Allen Beck Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
19
books
cite this book:
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- Electoral Realignment and the Outlook for American Democracy (Northeastern Series on Democratization and Political Development) by Arthur Paulson on 4 pages
- The Democratic Party Heads North, 1877-1962 by Alan Ware on 4 pages
- The Two Americas: Our Current Political Deadlock and How to Break It by Stanley B. Greenberg in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Two Americas: Our Current Political Deadlock and How to Break It by Stanley B. Greenberg in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Search for American Political Development by Karen Orren in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
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