Oedipal Realignment

Three of Harvard's most prominent political scientists yesterday concluded that the voter realignment sparked by the conservative Presidency of Ronald Reagan parallels the voter realignment caused by the New Deal policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt '04.

At a symposium called "The Changing American Electorate: Democracy and Public Opinion from 1936-1986," Shattuck Professor of Government James Q. Wilson, Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba '53 and Eaton Professor of the Science of Government Emeritus Samuel H. Beer discussed the historical framework of American voter participation and investigated how voters acted in the Roosevelt and Reagan elections.

In discussion ranging from the impact of public polling on voter attitudes to the New Deal change of Americans' cultural view toward government, the three explored the possibility that the so-called "Reagan Revolution might be as lasting as Roosevelt's.

The unanimous conclusion was that it was too early to tell.

Beer pointed out that Reagan himself supported the New Deal policies with a vehemence and called his politics "Oedipal."