Bifurcated Politics: Evolution and Reform in the National Party Convention.

• Author: Edsall, Thomas Byrne

Bifurcated Politics: Evolution and Reform in the National Party Convention. Byron E. Shafer. Harvard University Press, $2750. There are times, all too rare, when a scholarly book is on the cutting edge of the news. Shafer's is one of those books. Just as the networks, the political strategists, the print media, and the political parties themselves are attempting to come to grips with the realization that conventions no longer meet traditional expectations, Shafer has produced an incisive analysis of these gatherings.

He takes as his starting point the obvious: that conventions no longer nominate presidents. Primary and caucus electorates do. Instead, conventions have become launching pads, sometimes providing an exemplary lift-off, sometimes not. Sounds simple, but from these elementary facts Shafer builds an elegant argument, extending beyond conventions to illuminate the interior political dynamics of the new, post-1968 political parties.

For both parties, the last "nominating" conventions were in 1952, 36 years ago, when Adlai Stevenson needed three ballots to beat Estes Kefauver and Dwight Eisenhower had to demonstrate his strength in a series of credentials battles in his contest with Robert Taft. It was not, however, until after 1968 that Democratic-initiated reforms radically altered the delegate selection process for both parties. State legislatures created more primaries and caucuses, shifting power from party officials meeting at the conventions to the voters.

Shafer's data demonstrates that the percentage of Democratic delegates chosen by party structures fell from 57 percent in 1968 to 18 percent in 1972 and to 9 percent in 1976. For the GOP, the process was a little slower, failing from 52 percent party-selected delegates in 1968 to 39 percent in 1972 and to 15 percent in 1976. Reforms have left the leaders with very little power to broken

Within this political setting, Shafer also describes how the domination of convention proceedings by television and the growing power of special interest groups (such as the National Education Association and the Moral Majority) in the selection of delegates have converted conventions into new battlefields.

One struggle takes place between the prospective nominee and the competing collection of special interests -both those supportive of the nominee and those linked to the losersover the convention agenda. The candidate's goal is to suppress conflict and demonstrate full executive control...