Realignment and Party Revival: Understanding American Electoral Politics at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

The recent impeachment of President Bill Clinton provided the occasion for special interest in comparing American democracy with parliamentary democracies, and particularly for comparing the American party system with party systems in parliamentary democracies. The American President, unlike prime ministers elsewhere, cannot be removed from office by a simple vote of no confidence. The Constitution of the United States requires impeachment by a majority in the House of Representatives and conviction by a vote of two-thirds of the Senate. This difference is founded not only on the constitutional separation of powers but also on the reality that political parties do not govern in the United States. The President of the United States is not the leader of a parliamentary majority party or coalition as is the prime minister, premier, or chancellor in parliamentary democracies. Even without the separation of powers, it has usually been doubtful whether the President could govern, even when his party held majorities in Congress, because of the nature of American political parties themselves, which

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