Dismantling the Party System: Party Fluidity and the Mechanisms of Nineteenth-Century U.S. Politics.

The article looks at political parties and electoral politics in the U.S. during the 19th century. The authors introduce the idea of party fluidity, saying that the first century of U.S. politics is best understood by recognizing that the party structures were constantly in flux, rather than conforming to the typical model of a stable two-party system with occasional realignments, what they call the party system model. Topics include the historiography of U.S. political parties, the change of the Republican Party into the Union Party in the mid-1860s, and the nature of political party activities in the 19th century.