ABSTRACT
The Republican party has made significant gains perceptually as the party best able to handle a wide array of issues. In particular, that on the three key issues—fighting inflation, holding down taxes, and maintaining world peace—the Republican party, for the first time in decades, is viewed as better able to deal with these key issues than the Democratic party. The Republican coalition, on the other hand, was more homogeneous and relatively smaller; hence, it was more vulnerable to erosion from a third-party candidate who had his roots in the Republican party. The election was not a bestowal of political power, but a stewardship opportunity for the Reagan administration to reconsider and restructure the political agenda for the next decade. The win coalitions of the Reagan campaign may well have sanctioned this search for a new public philosophy to govern the United States. Ronald Reagan's mandate is "change.".
