Stephen Hess, in The Brookings Re- view (Summer 1987), 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.
In 1888, Oxford law professor James Bryce, author of The American Commonwealth, accused American voters of accepting "mediocrity" in their presidential candidates. Powerful political organizations, he wrote, only supported candidates from large states since "the objective was win-ning, not governing." Today, "political parties are in decline," argues Hess, a...