The Collapse of the Four-Party System and the Rise of Zero-Sum Politics

Abstract

This chapter explains the role that America’s political institutions had in separating the party coalitions and raising the stakes. In an earlier era, when parties were looser coalitions, America had a hidden four-party system-with Liberal Democrats, Conservative Democrats, Liberal Republicans, and Conservative Republicans. This created space for more fluid and flexible coalitions that differed on an issue by issue basis. Especially from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s, this allowed for broadly responsive policymaking. However, as politics nationalized around "culture war" questions, conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans began to go extinct. Given the winner-take-all nature of elections, parties shrunk to their separate geographic cores, becoming much more distinct. The close balance of power nationally turned national partisan competition into trench warfare, with an increasingly dysfunctional Congress as ground zero.