Answer to Question 1
Answer:
An ideal response will:
1. Describe the realignment period that began in reaction to the growing crisis over slavery in the period before the Civil War.
2. Identify the Republican Party as gaining strength in this period and winning the White House in 1860.
3. Demonstrate awareness that the Republican Party survived most opposition challenges from the Civil War period to the Great Depression, when large numbers of voters repudiated Republican Party policies and embraced the Democratic Party in 1932.
Answer to Question 2
Answer:
An ideal response will:
1. Indicate that dealignment, as opposed to realignment, is a period when no party has clear domination over the other.
2. Explain that dealignment is characterized by increased identification by the electorate as independent.
3. Characterize the period following Nixon as one of potential dealignment, briefly explaining why or why not voter disenchantment with the political system led many to identify as independents.