What is the current role of political parties and how does that contrast with previous decades?
In the 1990s, the parties became increasingly nationalized in their collection of money and in their ability to fund campaigns. We can finally say that, in the 1990s, for the first time, we had really national parties rather than a whole lot of state and local parties who came together every three or four years. And this is due to the increasing role of the national committees–the national congressional and senatorial campaign committees and so forth–in not just raising their own money but in orchestrating so-called soft money. This decade, particularly with the coming of McCain-Feingold’s law [which bans “soft money” campaign contributions to the national parties and raises the limit on “hard money” contributions from individuals] and its upholding by the Supreme Court, has raised serious questions about exactly what’s going to happen with that. This campaign is the first one being fully conducted under those provisions. So the 2000s, in terms of the role of the national parties and
