ABSTRACT
The concept of realignment is widely used for thinking about American elections. While income realignments play a role in the North and South, there has been no such development in the remainder of the nation. The process of change is creating realignment at the individual and district level and is the basis for the party polarization occurring in the House. With the electoral bases and policy concerns of the parties somewhat unsettled as the 1970s began, social changes were developing in ways with the potential to shift the electoral bases of the parties. The simple principle of how electoral alignments emerge is that "realignment theory comes down to the notion that something happens and the public responds". An income-based alignment has emerged because of the greater income diversity of House districts and because of the emergence of a stronger association between income and partisan outcomes across the districts.
