"The election of 1980 did more than break the Democrats' control of the White House and Congress. It also shattered some important assumptions about the character of our voting coalitions and the condition of our political parties. It opened some possibilities for the remainder of the century that had not been there before." These reflections by David S. Broder in the introduction to Party Coalitions in the 1980s are echoed in the essays of the twenty-one scholars, party leaders, and candidates in the volume.

I: Background and Issues; 1: Introduction; 2: Party Coalitions and the 1980 Election; 3: The Two-Party System: A Personal Reflection; II: The Party Systems; 4: Party Coalitions and the Search for Modern Values: 1820-1970; 5: Coalitional and Party Transformations in the 1890s; 6: Party Coalitions in the Early Twentieth Century; 7: The Shifting Party Coalitions -from the 1930s to the 1970s; III: Contemporary Politics; 8: Coalition and Faction in American Politics: An Institutional View; 9: Democrats and Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives; IV: The 1980 Campaign; 10: The Republican Strategy and Its Electoral Consequences; 11: The Democratic Strategy and Its Electoral Consequences; V: Realignment in the 1980 Election; 12: Catholics and the Democrats: Estrangement but Not Desertion; 13: Jewish Political Shift? Erosion, Yes; Conversion, No*; 14: Decay in Regional Party Coalitions: 1952-1980; VI: The Future of American Politics; 15: Developing a "Grand Coalition"; 16: Toward Confrontation?; 17: The Prospects for Reaganomics; 18: More Independent Presidential Candidacies?; 19: The New American Majority; 20: The Republican Prospects; VII: Conclusion; 21: The American Party System: Concluding Observations