Political Parties

Catalog description

As one of the preeminent observers of American politics, E.E. Schattschneider once opined that, ?modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of parties.? There are many ways in which this statement rings true, as the difficult task of aggregating the preferences of the electorate is made workable when voters are presented with a limited number of choices at the polls. For their part, though, the American electorate has often expressed a deep-seated ambivalence about political parties, and a number of major reform movements throughout American history have been geared toward lessening their impact on the political process. Yet the parties have exhibited a remarkable ability to survive and adapt to shifts in the political climate. This course will confront such changes and examine how parties?as organizations, in government, and in the electorate?serve to shape politics in the United States.