As a survey of the most current and significant issues affecting party politics in the United States, The Parties Respond has become a standard for reference and college course use. L. Sandy Maisel has drawn together leading scholars as well as party activists for original essays. The topics addressed include party organization, the changing relationship between parties and voters, the campaign and election process, and parties in government. The fourth edition offers has been revised by eliminating two chapters, adding a new chapter on the demise of the Reform Party in 2000, and a new chapter on campaign finance (and lack of reform).

Table of Contents:
List of Tables and Figures Prologue Acknowledgments * From Essential to the Existence of Our Institutions to Rapacious Enemies of Honest and Responsible Government: The Rise and Fall of American Political Parties, 17902000 Joel H. Silbey * State Party Organization: Strengthened and Adapting to Candidate-Centered Politics and Nationalization John F. Bibby * National Party Organization at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century Paul S. Herrnson * Party Identification and the Electorate at the Start of the Twenty-first Century Warren E. Miller (Updated by Kenneth Goldstein and Mark Jones) * Competing for Attention and Votes: The Role of State Parties in Setting Presidential Nomination Rules Bruce E. Cain and Megan Mullin * Party Role in Congressional Competition L. Sandy Maisel, Cherie Maestas, and Walter J. Stone * Following the (Soft) Money: Party Advertisements in American Elections Michael Franz and Kenneth Goldstein * Political Parties in the Era of Soft Money Ray La Raja * Political Parties in the Media: Where Elephants and Donkeys Are Pigs Matthew Robert Kerbel * Congressional Parties and the Policy Process Barbara Sinclair * Governing by Coalition: Policymaking in the U.S. Congress David W. Brady and Kara Z. Buckley * Partisan Presidential Leadership: The Presidents Appointees G. Calvin Mackenzie * Subtle Shifts, Dramatic Days: What the Plate Tectonics of American Politics Say About the Country and Its Future David M. Shribman References Biographies About the Editor and Contributors