Synopses & Reviews
Even today, when it is often viewed as an institution in decline, the national party convention retains a certain raw, emotional, populist fascination.
Bifurcated Politicsis a portrait of the postwar convention as a changing institution--a changing institution that still confirms the single most important decision in American politics.
With the 1988 elections clearly in mind, Byron Shafer examines the status of the national party convention, which is created and dispersed within a handful of days but nevertheless becomes a self-contained world for participants, reporters, and observers alike. He analyzes such dramatic developments as the disappearance of the contest over the presidential nomination and its replacement by struggles over the publicizing of various campaigns, the decline of party officials and the rise of the organized interests, and the large and growing disjunction between what is happening at the convention hall and what the public sees--between the convention on site and the convention on screen. He argues that, despite its declining status, the postwar convention has attracted--and mirrored--most of the major developments in postwar politics: the nationalization of that politics and the spread of procedural reform, a changing connection between the general public and political institutions, even the coming of a new and different sort of American politics.
Bifurcated Politicstells the story of most of the postwar conventions, along with the nominating campaigns that preceded them. But it also develops a picture of the changing American politics around those stories. It will become the definitive study of the national party convention.
Review
Byron Shafer has achieved the improbable: this new work of intellectually exciting scholarship excels his landmark Quiet Revolution. A brilliant case-study of how purposive political action brings about unintended political and social consequences.
Review
Bifurcated Politicsis a fresh and penetrating examination of the national party convention during four decades of fundamental change in the party system. With striking skill and insight, Shafer has written an exemplary institutional analysis, moving from the interplay of altered environmental forces and deliberate 'reform' to the ascendancy of organized interests and of the mass media inherent in the weakening political parties. Above all, the book looks at the convention and through it to the changing national politics surrounding it--a rare and valuable contribution to understanding and to constructive reflection.
About the Author
Byron E. Shaferis Glenn B. and Cleone Orr Hawkins Professor of Political Science at the <>University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Table of Contents
Introduction: National Party Conventions in American Politics: The Attractions of the Convention
1. The Nomination and the Convention: An Informal Disappearance
2. Institutionalizing the Disappearance: The Nomination after Reform
3. Changing Contours of Delegate Selection: The Decline of the Official Party
4. The Rise of the Organized Interests: An Alternative Base for Delegate Selection
5. The Convention and the Election: The Structure of Conflict inside the Hall
6. Recurring Struggles over Tangible Products: Traditional Activities in the Reformed Convention
7. The Struggle over the Mediated Convention: Televised Coverage and Public Perception
8. Coverage Levels and Institutional Character: The Coming of the Bifurcated Convention
Conclusion: Evolution and Reform: The Convention and a Changing American Politics
Afterword: Evolution and Reform beyond 1988: The Future of the National Party Convention
Notes
Acknowledgments and Project History
Index