This text on the travails of political parties in the United States is now up-to-date with a chapter bringing the analysis through to the 1992 presidential election. As in all previous editions, Wattenberg has a new angle of vision: in 1992 it is the Ross Perot phenomenon. More than any election in recent memory, the 1992 presidential election campaign demonstrated the weak hold of the two major parties on the American public. The election was unique in the historically unparalleled independent presidential candidacy of Ross Perot. Perot"s astonishing success demolishes the arguments of a number of recent theories declaring that parties are alive and well, and offers some backing for Wattenberg"s abiding thesis.