{"product_id":"9780875864075","title":"Changing Party Coalitions: The Mystery of the Red State-Blue State Alignment","description":"This book, based in substantial part on archival work, breaks outmoded\u003cbr\u003etaboos on the American past and shows what really occurred in the\u003cbr\u003etransformation of American politics and why.\u003cbr\u003eJerry F. Hough observes that the historic Democratic-Republican party\u003cbr\u003ealignment was based on the great conflict between the North and the South\u003cbr\u003eand on that among the hostile European-American \"races.\" Both of these conflicts\u003cbr\u003ebasically ended in the 1960s and 1970s as European-Americans became\u003cbr\u003e\"whites.\" This made a party realignment inevitable, but the politics surrounding\u003cbr\u003ethe conflicts made it difficult to understand what was happening. As a\u003cbr\u003eresult, the political elites crafted a highly unnatural and unhealthy red stateblue\u003cbr\u003estate alignment.\u003cbr\u003eThis political reality is not incorporated in the theories of comparative politics\u003cbr\u003eand of nation-building, Hough explains, because it has been too encased in\u003cbr\u003ethis mythology. The 1950s through the 1970s was a period of great political turmoil\u003cbr\u003ein the United States. The dramatic events of the black revolution, the anti-\u003cbr\u003eVietnam demonstrations, and the women's liberation movement caught everyone's\u003cbr\u003eattention, but some of the most fundamental changes were less visible.\u003cbr\u003eThe relations between North and South were highly confrontational, but the\u003cbr\u003eperiod actually led to the end of the historic North-South conflict that had\u003cbr\u003edefined the American political system since the Revolution.\u003cbr\u003eThe two parties have been groping ever since to find a satisfactory new set\u003cbr\u003eof coalitions, but they have thus far failed. The new divide, the red state-blue\u003cbr\u003estate alignment, produces even narrower and more polarized electoralresults\u003cbr\u003ein a society that is not fundamentally polarized. What is going on?\u003cbr\u003eThe author insists that narrow cultural issues are used as electoral platforms\u003cbr\u003ein today's politics not because of their inherent importance, but because\u003cbr\u003eof party strategies. He explains how we can return to the healthy debating role\u003cbr\u003ethat a two-party system is supposed to play in a democratic nation and why\u003cbr\u003ethis is so crucial.\u003cbr\u003eJerry F. Hough is the James B. Duke Professor of Political Science at Duke\u003cbr\u003eUniversity, where he teaches courses on the US Presidency. As a long-time specialist\u003cbr\u003eon comparative political development, especially the Soviet Union, he\u003cbr\u003ebrings a rare perspective to the study of American political evolution. Expert\u003cbr\u003eand student alike will find his revision of the conventional wisdom fresh and\u003cbr\u003ethought-provoking.  ","brand":"Algora Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47009165377776,"sku":"9780875864075","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780875864075_p0.jpg?v=1763854988","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780875864075","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}