| Racial Realignment Subjects: POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / General.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom & Security / Civil Rights.; Racism; African Americans; Few transformations in American politics have been as important as the integration of African Americans into the Democratic Party and the Republican embrace of racial policy conservatism. The story of this partisan realignment on race is often told as one in which political elites--such as Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater--set in motion a dramatic and sudden reshuffling of party positioning on racial issues during the 1960s. Racial Realignment instead argues that top party leaders were actually among the last to move, and that their choices were dictated by changes that had already occurred beneath them. Drawing upon rich data sources and original historical research, Eric Schickler shows that the two parties' transformation on civil rights took place gradually over decades. Eric Schickler is the Jeffrey and Ashley McDermott Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His books include Disjointed Pluralism and Filibuster (both Princeton). |