Introduction

Abstract

Developments in American Politics is designed to provide an accessible but theoretically informed exploration of the changing character of American political life. American politics have to be understood as the result of a complex interplay between the institutions of government and the demands of a highly heterogeneous society. This interplay produces a politics which is at once relatively stable in outline but subject to rapid transformation in detail. Against the apparent longevity and stability of a system of government confidently celebrating its bicentenary, must be set the underlying reality of a dynamic political culture, the product of rapid and profound social changes in the United States over the last quarter of the twentieth century.