An inquiry on the ebate of the U.S. liberal-conservative swing in the 1980s

Abstract

The electoral triumphs of the Republicans in the United States in 1980 and 1984 could be seen as part of a trend that has touched many Western industrialized democracies (the Progressive Conservatives in Canada in 1979 and 1984, the Coriservatives in Britain in 1979 and 1983). It was frequently argued that the American people turned to the right and something happened in the ever-long American liberal tradition. Of course, as many scholars observe, the election result of 1980 can be said as the outcome of Democratic economic misfortune. But the landslide victory of Ronald Reagan in 1984 could not be attributed to just a misfortune of the Democratic party and liberal philosophy. Reagan obliterated the opposition. Mondale carried only his home state, and that by the narrowest margins. It became a signal toward a speculation about the resurgence of consenratism. Did really America turn to the right?