- State & Local
- California
- Politics, Institutions, and Public Opinion
- Campaigns & Elections
- Empowering State and Local Governance
- Revitalizing American Institutions
How did America go from relative political stability in post-Cold War America – one party controlling Congress for the better part of four decades leading up to 1994 – to the past three decades of revolving-door majorities on Capitol Hill and increasing partisan bitterness in our political discourse? David W. Brady, a renowned political scientist and the Hoover Institution’s Davies Family Senior Fellow, Emeritus, explains why in his latest book, From Dominance to Parity: America’s Political Parties and the New Era of Electoral Instability. Among the topics discussed: how the Roosevelt and Reagan landslides scrambled America’s voting blocs; why the 2008 Obama landslide wasn’t as transformational; the many dimensions of partisan shift (gender, age, income and education); the possibility of old-school moderate Democrats and Republicans repopulating the political landscape, or hyper-partisanship continuing to dominate future elections.
Recorded on January 12, 2026.
RELATED SOURCES
- From Dominance to Political Parity: America’s Political Parties and the New Era of Electoral Instability (Stanford University Press, 2025)
