| Summary: | "Why do people identify with political parties and how stable are those identifications are over time and with changes in issues and party leadership? In an electoral democracy, parties act as a necessary link between voters and government. Stable party systems, with a relatively limited number of parties competing for control of government, and relatively stable voter identification with a party, are normally considered significant signals of a steady democracy. Ken Kollman and John E. Jackson study changing patterns of partisanship in four countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, over the last fifty years. In Dynamic Partisanship they observe changes in party identification since the 1960's in these four countries which they seek to explain. They find that changes in the parties' positions on important issues explains most of the change in party identification. An outstanding illustration of this effect is the example of white voters leaving the Democratic party as it came to embrace civil rights"--
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