comprehensive, including the American party system and its third parties and independents; all three parts of the parties (the party organizations, the party in the electorate, and the party in government); and the interaction among these parts, especially during election campaigns. Professor Beck integrates academic research on the parties with contemporary and historical examples of party politics in the U.S. The eighth edition incorporates new research and political events through the beginning of the 1996 presidential election campaign, employs more comparisons with other democratic party systems than before, and addresses directly the question of the changing role of the parties in American politics.

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