Challenges to party government

Former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once commented that "in times of great political change and rapid political transition it will generally be observed that political parties find it convenient to rebaptize themselves." Fifty years after the publication of E.E. Schattschneider's Party Government and forty-two years after the publication of Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System, distinguished scholars including Everett Carll Ladd, Wilson Carey McWilliams, John S. Jackson III, Sidney M. Milkis, and scholar-congressmen David E. Price (D-NC) and William M. Thomas (R-CA) reevaluate the long-standing assumptions that surround the "responsible parties" argument. In this collection of essays edited by John Kenneth White and Jerome M. Mileur, contributors voice their perspectives on the challenges confronting the party system of government in the United States. Elections in which the party system fails to frame issues satisfactorily and the rise of an American state without the helping hand of parties to run it have all contributed to a political crisis of confidence in party government. Indeed, White recently termed Ross Perot's candidacy a "wake-up call" for Democrats and Republicans. Still, while their analysis of current party government acknowledges problems, these authors favor a resurgence of the party system, arguing that political parties are the indispensable instruments of communication between our country's voters and their elected officials. For those political scientists, elected officials, and voters who share their wish, immersing these once grand institutions into the "born-again" waters of a Disraeli-type baptism remains the single most important challenge of the decade ahead.