The bulk of the literature rejects the argument that Democratic failur
e in presidential elections between 1968 and 1988 had an ideological b
asis. Analysis of the interplay of respondents' own issue positions wi
th their perceptions of the parties/candidates suggests a different an
d rather complex picture. Between 1968 and 1980, the partisan/ideologi
cal cores of the two parties-liberal Democrats and conservative Republ
icans-behave quite differently: only moderately different defection ra
tes between the most liberal Democrats and most conservative Republica
ns increase considerably as one moves from the relevant ideological ex
treme to the center. Placement of parties/candidates in issue space ex
plains this asymmetry during this initial period of Democratic decline
: the Democratic party/candidate is perceived as far to the left, with
Democratic identifiers positioned midway between the electoral altern
atives; Republicans identifiers, in contrast, are to the right of both
parties/candidates, but very close to their own. Beginning in 1980, t
he Reagan candidacy/administration push popular images of the Republic
ans to the right, eliminating their ideological advantage and forcing
us to look elsewhere for the basis of continued Democratic losses.