ABSTRACT
Sectionalism has always played a key role in American politics. With the Electoral College and both houses of Congress based on state and substate constituencies, the enormous regional variation in the nation has produced widely varying electoral eff ects, with each party having exceptional strength in particular parts of the nation. When change occurs, as when one major party’s fortunes rise while the other’s sink, the eff ects are usually felt diff erently in diff erent parts of the country. Sometimes the parties have even traded places geographically.
