Discusses the structure of political parties in order to help understand modern American politics.

Byron E. Shafer is Hawkins Chair of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was formerly Mellon Professor of American Politics at the University of Oxford from 1984 to 2001. He has written on numerous aspects of the structure of American politics, and he has attended all national party conventions for both parties from 1980 onward.

Preface to a long war: party structure and democratic representation in American politics; 1. Party structure in theory and in practice: organized parties, volunteer parties, and their evolution; 2. Party structure and representational impact: public preferences on social welfare and civil rights; 3. Party structure and representational impact: cultural values, comprehensive ideologies, and national security; 4. A conclusion to the long war? Party structure and policy responsiveness; Afterword: a newer 'new politics'? Party structure in modern dress.