Realignment is a concept in political science usually referring to the change of basic voting loyalties by groups in the electorate. Political sociology has demonstrated that most electorates consist of socio-demographic groups with strong long-term identifications with a particular political party. Although not everyone who is, for example, a young, urban, northern, working-class male will always vote for the Labour Party in Britain, the odds are strongly in favour of him doing so. Similarly nearly all blacks in the USA will vote Democrat. These loyalties, often inherited in a fairly automatic way from parents, and reinforced by peer-group pressure, last for decades and result in a high predictability in electoral behaviour.
From time to time, however, social change, major events like wars or economic disruption cause sudden breaks in these semi-automatic electoral regularities. When this happens a realignment may occur, shifting the bulk of whole socio-demographic groups to new party loyalties. It is often argued, for example, that the economic collapse in the USA after the Wall Street crash, and Franklin Roosevelt’s recovery policies, made the 1932 presidential election a realigning election in which new voting loyalties, known as the New Deal coalition, were formed and which lasted until at least the 1960s. Similarly the elections after the First World War in Britain, when the Labour Party was first able to present itself as a viable socialist alternative party, set up new working-class loyalties, taking voters from the Liberals and realigning electoral politics in Britain in a way which lasted at least until the 1970s. Realignment should not be confused with dealignment, a similar process, but one which sees voters being cut loose from any stable ties to parties, so that their vote loses long-term predictability.
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