Parties as Problem Solvers.

ABSTRACTScholars generally agree that American political parties today more closely resemble the ideal of the responsible party advocates than did the parties of their time. But there is no general agreement that today's parties are superior to those of the mid-twentieth century in the sense of addressing and solving the pressing problems of our time. This paper argues that the parties today differ in composition and behavior from those of the mass parties of earlier periods in American history. Thus, implicit and explicit assumptions about how parties behave are no longer accurate. In consequence, rather than solve today's problems better than the decentralized, disunited parties of a half century ago, today's centralized, cohesive parties are no better at solving problems and may even make them worse. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]