ABSTRACT
The 1992 presidential election might initially seem to mark an end of the era of Republican dominance in presidential elections that dates back to 1968. Bill Clinton's victory was only the Democrats' second since 1964. The Democratic problem was characteristic of an out-party's dilemma in an essentially retrospectively-oriented electoral system. If vote choice in the 1980s had been driven by party loyalty, prospective issue concerns, or economic issues like class and social welfare, President Clinton would have been accepting congratulations from President Dukakis and former President Walter Mondale after concluding his oath of office. In the 1984 campaign, Walter Mondale mounted a concerted attack on the Reagan administration's economic and social welfare policies, questioning whether tax cuts could stimulate stable long-term economic growth and challenging the fairness of cutting social welfare programs for those in genuine need of government assistance.
