ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to understand change in the party systems of the states of the Mountain West. It deals with some more general observations about the role of party organizations in the realignment of party system. Realignment is most usefully understood as involving change in the party system. Perhaps the most important omission of realignment observers is their inattention to party organizations. Party organizations are implicitly assumed to be experiencing the same realigning processes as the other components of party. The scholars involved in the Party Transformation Study have conceptualized party organizations independently of the various other components of party and have developed the concept "party organizational strength" as a means of measuring the vitality of state and local party organizations. In federal legislative elections, a pattern similar to the state legislative pattern emerges: greater Democratic state party organizational strength is associated in the Mountain West with lesser electoral success.
