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Since the original edition of Dynamics of the Party System was published in 1973, American politics have continued on a tumultuous course. In the vacuum left by the decline of the Democratic and Republican parties, single-interest groups have risen and flourished. Protest movements on the left and the New Right at the opposite pole have challenged and divided the major parties, and the Reagan Revolution--in reversing a fifty-year trend toward governmental expansion--may turn out to have revolutionized the party system too.In this edition, as in the first, current political trends and events are placed in a historical and theoretical context. Focusing upon three major realignments of the past--those of the 1850s, the 1890s, and the 1930s--Sundquist traces the processes by which basic transformations of the country's two-party system occur. From the historical case studies, he fashions a theory as to the why and how of party realignment, then applies it to current and recent developments, through the first two years of the Reagan presidency and the midterm election of 1982.The theoretical sections of the first edition are refined in this one, the historical sections are revised to take account of recent scholarship, and the chapters dealing with the postwar period are almost wholly rewritten. The conclusion of the original work is, in general, confirmed: the existing party system is likely to be strengthened as public attention is again riveted on domestic economic issues, and the headlong trend of recent decades toward political independence and party disintegration reversed, at least for a time.

As a result of the 1994 midterm election, the Republicans took control of both houses of Congress and divided government returned to Washington. Now, as the budget battles of 1995 clearly demonstrate, conflict between the parties is sending the government back to gridlock.In this sequel to Beyond Gridlock?—a study published at the beginning of the Clinton administration, when government was in the hands of one political party—the contributors address this dilemma.They begin by evaluating the effectiveness of the U.S. governmental system during the first two years of the Clinton administration, when both branches were controlled by a single party. They then move to a wider debate about the state of affairs in the American political system: what are the consequences of the Republican takeover of Congress, and will fundamental changes be required to make our system work effectively? Looking to the future, they outline the prospects for governance in the months and years to come.In addition to the editor, the contributors are Howard H. Baker, Jr., Harold R. Bruno, Jr., Becky Cain, Lloyd N. Cutler, Thomas J. Downey, Kenneth M. Duberstein, Bill Frenzel, Charles O. Jones, Thomas E. Mann, Patricia McGinnis, Milton D. Morris, Kevin P. Phillips, Robert D. Reischauer, Donald L. Robinson, Robin Toner, and Vin Weber.Copublished with the Committee on the Constitutional System

For only the second time in close to a quarter century, the U.S. executive and legislative branches are in the hands of the same political party. Will this end governmental gridlock? Or will we discover that the problems of our political system run deeper than party labels?The contributors to this book examine the prospects for unified government during the Clinton presidency and, looking to the future, discuss possibilities for structural reform—in the political parties, in campaigning, in the Congress, and through amendments to the Constitution. The book draws on papers and comments presented at a'Government in Gridlock'conference cosponsored by Brookings and the Committee on the Constitutional System shortly after the inauguration of President Clinton.The contributors—present and former members of Congress and officials of the executive branch, Washington journalists, public opinion analysts, and political scientists—are Howard Baker, James MacGregor Burns, Lloyd Cutler, Thomas Downey, Ken Duberstein, David Gergen, Celinda Lake, Rep. Jim Leach, Thomas Mann, Andrea Mitchell, Tom Oliphant, Howard Paster, Jody Powell, Cokie Roberts, Donald Robinson, Warren Rudman, Barbara Sinclair, Hedrick Smith, and Steven Smith.