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.

ISBN: 978-1-4522-1694-2

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1. The Apartisan American

2. The Two Sides of the Dealignment Debate

3. Do Partisans Go to Heaven?

4. Mobilization and Democratic Citizenship

5. Becoming Active in Politics

6. Images of the Political Parties

7. Making Candidate Choices

8. Switchers, Splitters and Late Deciders

9. Dealignment in Comparative Perspective

10. Electoral Politics Past and Future

“One of the most important features of contemporary American politics is the large share of the electorate who do not identify as either Democrats or Republicans. These independents, ‘apartisans’ as properly conceptualized in this book, are the current battleground in elections. They deserve careful attention from all who want to understand -- or to shape -- American politics. No one is better positioned than Russ Dalton, who has studied apartisans in the United States and other countries for several decades, to provide us with this in-depth understanding. The Apartisan American is a timely contribution to the study of American politics.”

- Paul A. Beck, The Ohio State University

“Russell Dalton carefully crafts a provocative argument in his new book, The Apartisan American. Rejecting the traditional typology of voters as strong versus weak partisans or pure versus leaning independents, Dalton focuses on a classification based on cognitive abilities, political interest, and party attachments. Americans with higher cognitive abilities and greater political interest are best viewed as either cognitive partisans or apartisans, depending upon partisan attachments, while those with lower interest and skills are categorized as ritual partisans or apolitical independents. Dalton skillfully demonstrates how this four-fold classification better explains current patterns and historical trends in political involvement and voter preferences. He concludes the book with evidence of similar dealignments and a growth in apartisans in other democracies.”

- Barbara Norrander, University of Arizona

“This is a characteristically impressive book that sheds new light on the independent voter and uses an unrivalled time-series to tell us who they are, what they think and—most importantly—how they vote.”

- Ian McAllister, Australian National University

Russell Dalton is a professor 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 politics 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 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 The Apartisan American (2012), Political Parties and Democratic Linkage (2011), Citizens, Context and Choice (2011), The Good Citizen (2009), Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior (2007), Citizens, Democracy and Markets around the Pacific Rim (2006), Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: 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 Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (co-editor, 2001). He has also appeared in six feature-length Hollywood movies.

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