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CHANGE IN THE AMERICAN ELECTORATE HAS TRADITIONALLY BEEN STUDIES BY COMPARING THE NUMBER OF INDEPENDENTS TO THE NUMBER OF PARTISANS, AND COMPARING THE IMPACT OF PARTISANSHIP TO THE IMPACT OF ISSUE VOTING. STABLE NUMBERS OF PARTISANS AND STABLE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN PARTISANSHIP AND ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR ARE INTERPRETED TO MEAN CONTINUITY IN THE ELECTORATE. THESE COMPARISONS, THOUGH USEFUL, IGNORE THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE MEANING OF PARTISANSHIP AND THE REASONS BEHIND ITS IMPACT ON ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR MAY HAVE CHANGED AS WELL. AS THE POTENTIAL FOR INDEPENDENT BEHAVIOR AND POLITICAL SOPHISTICATION INCREASES IN THE UNITED STATES, THE MOST SOPHISTICATED AND RATIONAL PARTISANS ARE ABLE TO LAY ASIDE THEIR PARTY LABELS, LEAVING FEWER, LESS RATIONAL PARTISANS. THIS ARGUMENT IS TESTED AND SUPPORTED USING DATA FROM THE NATIONAL ELECTION SURVEYS OF 1952 THROUGH 1980.

Public knowledge about politics is compared with levels of knowledge in the 1940s and 1950s. When level of education is controlled, levels of knowledge appear to have declined from 1945 to 1957. A reanalysis of Gallup data is used to estimate effectiveness of schools in transmitting political information in 1989 compared with the earlier years. (Abstract amended)