Critical Elections: And the Mainsprings of American Politics

Ibid., ¶ 3– “... eras of critical realignment are marked by short, sharp reorganizations of the mass coalitional bases of the major parties which occur a periodic intervals on the national level; often preceded by major third-party revolts which reveal the incapacity of ‘politics as usual’ to integrate, much less aggregate, emergent political demand; are marked by ideological polarizations and issuedistances between the major parties which are exceptionally large by normal standards; and have durable consequences as constituent acts which determine the outer boundaries of policy in general, though not necessarily of policies in detail...”