ABSTRACT
The changes that have overtaken American politics in the postwar period are the product of many separate, disconnected, narrowly focused reforms and of the secular impact of technology and demographic change. A political scene dominated by a rapidly growing number of special interests sturdily equipped with modern communications technology and lots of money is James Madison's nightmare. Technology is everywhere in modern campaigns: computer-generated direct mail, telephone banks, jet travel, public opinion polling. But the technology that has most significantly changed the face of presidential campaigns is the broadcast media. Presidential campaigns, like the presidential nominating process, have driven a deep wedge between the electoral process and the governing process. The skills and qualities needed to become president rarely match the skills and qualities needed to succeed as president. Through Republican and Democratic administrations alike, the federal government has been creating new programs that absorb and then institutionalize functions once performed by political parties and local politicians.
