ABSTRACT
It is clear how realignment theory might in principle account for the new era ot Republican domination of presidential elections that began in 1968. The argument made is that there are two distinct eras or Republican domination of presidential elections after 1968, both of them at least partially retrospective in character. Existing literature is sufficient to establish that no simple across-the-board increase in mass conservatism is responsible for the Democrats' failure between 1968 and 1988. The analysis of perceived distance to the parties and candidates on different types of issues is hampered by the limitations of individual NES surveys. The interplay of respondents' issue concerns and perceptions of the parties/ candidates provides a substantial ideological basis for Democratic electoral performance at the presidential level between 1968 and 1980, despite the lack of increasing conservatism among Democratic partisans. Democratic defection rates increase over time across the full range of ideological extremity.
