ienation among voters. To overcome a decline in political trust, government must eliminate partisanship to the degree possible and must behave in a manner that is perceived as supportive of votersÆ interests.
Transparency and accountability in government activities and in the behaviors of key leaders can also inhibit any decline in political trust (Flanigan & Zingale, 2002). Encouraging voter registration drives, actively reaching out to registered voters, and providing mechanisms for voter feedback are among the strategies that can be used to increase levels of political trust. Ultimately, it is the character of any given leader or leaders that is most likely to increase the level of political trust in a political system and to encourage active participation.
A political party realignment is described by Luttbeg and Gant (1995) as the redistribution of party support associated with the displacement of one political conflict with another. Realignments can be precipitated by the emergence of new issues about which the electorate has extremely intense feelings that cut across any existing cleavage between the parties. For example, Bolce, De Maio, and Muzzio (1992) have stated that many African-Americans normally aligned with the Democratic Party, began to move toward the Republican Party in the early 1990s in part because of the growing congruence between the ideology and interests of middle class and upper middle class African-Americans and the Republican Party.
Flanigan and Zingale (2002) identified a number of political realignments that have created a set of five different party systems or eras that are distinguished by the different political parties that existed or the different competitive relationships among the part
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