For a generation the United States has experienced a

complex and deepening crisis of its political and economic order. Three pivotal

and highly abnormal electios have punctuated this crisis. In 1968, undermined

by the Vietnam War and the civil rights revolution, the New Deal order

collapsed. A new electoral regime emerged from the ruins, marked by three main

features: normal Republican control of the presidency; divided government as

the (unprecedented) norm; and a candidate-dominated "permanent campaign,"

in which a capital-intensive personalism crowded out labor-intensive political

parties.