ABSTRACT
Parties assume a pivotal position in the political outlook of citizens in part because they are the most enduring objects in the American political environment. Any investigation of ideological change in the American electorate must necessarily focus on shifts in public assessments of the political parties. If assessments of the parties are at the core of Americans' political outlook, then more favorable evaluations of the conservative party may indeed constitute evidence that Americans have embraced conservatism. If growing conservatism has been mediated through shifting perceptions of the political parties, then we would expect to find evidence of increasing affect for the Republican party. Since the electoral realignment of the 1930s, the Democrats have been the majority party in American politics: more Americans identified with the Democrats than with the Republicans. In the late 1960s and again during the Carter years, Americans made more favorable evaluations of the Republican party, and their esteem for the Democrats sagged.
