Two-Party system in the United States

First, the party system is treated as an entity and the sections of the book follow in a sequential order dictated by the interrelations of the phenomens which constitute the system. There can be endlem disagreement about the accurate placing of individual pieces of data and about the exact perspective in which all of the data should be seen. The fact remains that the party process flows from the foundations of the system to the methods of internal control and order-called organization to the hases for appeal ing to the electorate, to the synthesis of organization and bases in the continuity of elections and campaigning. One result of this treatment of the party process is to rearrange and even reverse some of the familiar sequences of topics. An explicit value of this presentation should be a more accurate following of the circuitous procession of events. The three great areas of the party system represented by Sections II to IV are in reality intermingled, not watertight compartments. In political operations there is an inseparability which not only defies exact description but also is partly lost by the location, identification, and examination of major components.

Second, this book is about two-party politics in the United States. One result of this emphasis is to place minor parties in a less crucial role than they are sometimes given and to cause them to make their appearance at various points throughout the book instead of discussing them in tolo at only one point. Another result of this emphasis is to deal with what is done and with what does or can happen. If the discussion includes prac tices or attitudes considered to be immoral, the problem must be attacked elsewhere. This is not a book on morals or ethics. The analyses and descrip tions may be attacked for being inaccurate or incomplete. To attack them for being immoral or insensitive to ethical standards is to miss the point. Censure, if it is to be directed towar sin, should be reserved for the sinners not for the reporters of sin. The censure in this case should fall upon followers as well as leaders, average citizens as well as public officials. If the system is sinful, everyone within the system is involved.

Third, the consideration of reforms in the party system, those with apparently far-reaching implications, is reserved for the final section. This method of organization is not dictated primarily by convenience in preeing the material, tot tergely for the reason the material is not an in ma janrd the descripnim el the system itself. This discussion would te pilared lear fin another reasom. Virroslly anyone can point out what he der le imperfect te indeferible in the party system, Propos to making changes need not be based upon either information or meer anding Proposh can be sheer subjective, off the caff pronouncements since everyone is likely to have his own personal concept of heaven and to te willing to fashion a political and social structure out of the thin air af his own predilections Presumably, proposals for reform of any basic element of the system will either directly or indirectly affect other elements and in order that the maximum implications of the reforms can be appreciated, the logical place to discuss them is at the end. Incidentally, eaking up reforms separately makes them more unified and comprehensible than would a piecemeal treatment of reforms in connection with each process or practice when it is first introduced.