As the high drama of national elections keeps watchers on the edge of their seats, a different phenomenon altogether characterizes the politics of the American states: long-term one-party monopolies. Widely (and wrongly) assumed to be specific to the South, one-party domination is as ubiquitous as it is consequential. Monopoly Rule documents the startling pervasiveness of state party monopolies since the 1930s.

Even in the “battleground states” of recent presidential elections, Janine A. Parry and Zoe Nemerever make the case that one party or the other usually holds a large and enduring advantage outside the presidential contest. Using a novel State Party Control Index, the authors demonstrate the troubling effects of these partisan juggernauts, including upticks in elite malfeasance, voter complacency, and democratic backsliding. Despite the renewed willingness of contemporary party elites to advance their electoral success by rigging the rules, Monopoly Rule argues that contemporary state and local experiments in ranked choice voting, independent redistricting, and campaign finance reform offer options for reinvigorating the health of American democracy.

Janine A. Parry is University Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Arkansas.

Zoe Nemerever is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Montana State University.