The Apartisan American

Party identification is often considered the most important concept in modern electoral research-yet Americans' party ties have eroded. Today, independents comprise the largest portion of voters, outnumbering either Democrats or Republicans. This provocative book sheds new light on the dealignment trend with the emergence of an independent voter Dalton is calling the Apartisan American. Utilizing 60 years of electoral surveys, Dalton's friendly and concise narrative shows students just who these apartisans are and how they're introducing new volatility into electoral politics, changing the calculus of electoral decision making, and altering the behavior of political parties. Dalton also shows the same dealignment trend happening in other established democracies. Understanding these apartisans is key to understanding the 2012 election as well as party and electoral politics into the future.

Russell J. Dalton is professor of political science at the University of California. Irvine and former director of the Center for the Study of Democracy. His research and teaching focuses on the changing nature of citizen polities in contemporary democracies. He has received a Fulbright Research Fellowship, a German Marshall Fund Fellowship. Barbra Streisand Center Fellowship, and POSCO Research Fellowship. He has recently served on the boards of the American National Election Study, the British Election Study, and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. Among his recent authored or edited books are Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior (2007). Citizens, Democracy and Markets around the Pacific Rim (2006), Citizen Politics, 4th edition (2006). Democratic Challenges. Democratic Choice: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies (2004), Democracy Transformed. The Expansion of Citizen Access in Advanced Industrial Democracies (2003), and Parties without Partisons Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (co-editor, 2001).