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Realignment and Macropartisanship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2017

Michael F. Meffert ,
Helmut Norpoth  and
Anirudh V. S. Ruhil
Michael F. Meffert
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Helmut Norpoth
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Anirudh V. S. Ruhil
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago
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Abstract

Aggregate party identification (macropartisanship) has exhibited substantial movement in the U.S. electorate over the last half century. We contend that a major key to that movement is a rare, massive, and enduring shift of the electoral equilibrium commonly known as a partisan realignment. The research, which is based on time-series data that employ the classic measurement of party identification, shows that the 1980 election triggered a systematic growth of Republican identification that cut deeply into the overwhelming Democratic lead dating back to the New Deal realignment. Although short-term fluctuations in macropartisanship are responsive to the elements of everyday politics, neither presidential approval nor consumer sentiment is found responsible for the 1980 shift.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 95 , Issue 4 , December 2001 , pp. 953 - 962
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2001

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