Political Realignment: Economics, Culture, and Electoral Change

Russell J. Dalton

Dec 2018 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Sean Runnette

About this audiobook

The process of electoral change is accelerating in contemporary democracies, and this book explains why. The emergence of Green parties in the 1980s and recent far right parties, Brexit, and Trump's 2016 victory are parts of this overall process.



Political Realignment tracks the evolution of citizen and elite opinions on economic and cultural issues from the 1970s to the 2010s—and the impact of these changes on electoral politics and public policy. Citizen positions on these cleavages have realigned over time, producing a similar realignment in the structure of the party systems to represent these demands. Economic issues remain important, now joined by divisions on cultural issues as a backlash to modernization. Assembling an unprecedented time series of empirical evidence, this study explains the new forces of elector change in both Europe and the United States.

About the author

Russell Dalton is Research Professor of Political Science at the Center for the Study of Democracy at UC Irvine. He has been awarded a Fulbright Research Fellowship, Scholar-in-Residence at the Barbra Streisand Center, German Marshall Fund Research Fellowship, and the POSCO Fellowship at the East West Center in Hawaii. Sean Runnette, a multiple AudioFile Earphones Award winner, has also produced several Audie Award-winning audiobooks. His film and television appearances include Two If by Sea, Copland, Sex and the City, Law & Order, Third Watch, and lots and lots of commercials.