Is the party over? Decline and revival in the American party system

Beginning in the late 1960s titles of books, chapters and articles reflected a pervasive belief amongst scholars that parties were losing their influence in the American political system. Originating with Burnham’s 1969 article ‘The End of Party Politics’, this strain of writing proliferated into the 1980s reflected in titles such as The Party’s Over, Dismantling the Parties, Parties in Crisis, American Parties in Decline. Within a decade of the appearance of Burnham’s article the decline of parties was part of the conventional wisdom of American political science.