ABSTRACT
Partisan realignments occur during periods of pronounced national tension. The political interests and concerns of the electorate are high during these periods, and attention is focused upon the conditions of crisis and their presumed causes and remedies. The early decades of the twentieth century can appropriately be seen as one of the successive electoral eras that have characterized the political history of the United States. Rates of voter participation declined significantly during the early decades of the twentieth century, and voter participation in the 1920s was low indeed. It is difficult to go beyond the geographic distribution of support for Democratic and Republican candidates and to identify the specific population groups that comprised the party coalitions. The 1920s, then, witnessed the deterioration of the Republican coalition. That deterioration was most marked in the states of the Northwest and reflected the continuing grievances of agriculture, grievances that were fueled by the depression of the early 1920s.
