ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the process of policy realignment more closely, explains how it is occurring, and explores its potential significance for national politics. It argues that the key dynamic of the realignment has been not so much a shift in ideology as a shift from purely programmatic politics to ideology. Changes in the policy orientation of the national Democratic party further enhanced the Republican ideological advantage, as the party deemphasized regionally beneficial forms of federal activism, such as natural resource development, to favor programs such as consumer and environmental protection that have little regional support. The first consideration in explaining the Mountain States' Congressional policy realignment is the changing nature of the region's political economy. In the late 1960s and 1970s the emergence of environmental protection and national energy policy as high visibility national issues thrust Mountain West politicians into the center of national ideological conflict.
