Political scientists commonly distinguish among three types of the word "party": There are parties in the electorate, parties as political organizations and parties in government. In the electorate, most political scientists agree that political parties are in decline, pointing to the rise in split ticket voting and a gradual decline in the number of self-identified "strong partisans." In spite of this, parties as organizations are flourishing on the national level, due to special interest funds, …showed first 75 words of 661 total…

…showed last 75 words of 661 total…with political parties have grown, on average, more ideologically extreme over the last three decades. Alienation is another reason, as the average American has become only slightly more conservative, creating a growing gap between the preferences of political elites and average citizens. Finally, as our legislators in Congress have been voting more along party lines, citizens are becoming more frustrated with this partisanship and they themselves are less partisan than they were thirty years ago.