David Broders
September 07, 2010
Just How Strong Are Political Parties?
How strong are American political parties? Party scholars disagree about how to go about thinking about that question. For me, the way to think about party strength is to think about how much of overall political activity goes through the parties. That is, pick an important political activity: writing laws, electing public officials, carrying out laws, political communications, civic rituals, and so on. Pick one, and ask: is it organized by the parties, or by some other mechanism? READ MORE >>
