Those who subscribe to the idea that there was a “system of 1896” point to the decline of both electoral participation and party competition after 1896 as evidence that that year (or if not that year, then more generally the years between 1893 and 1896) constituted a turning point in the American party system. However, much of the evidence for the view that, after 1896, the United States entered the political equivalent of the Dark Ages has been distorted.

We begin briefly with reduced voter turnout, with which the post-1896 era is often associated. It is true that nationally turnout declined after 1896, but much of that decline was the result of developments in the South. Moreover, the decline in the South had begun a decade earlier. Outside the South, turnout in the 1900 election was, indeed, lower than in 1896, but in 1900 it was still higher than it had been in 1892. In fact, comparing turnout in the North in the 1900, 1904, and 1908 elections with that for the period 1840–96 reveals that there were several elections in which turnout had been lower in the earlier period: In 1848, 1852, and 1872 it was lower than in all three elections of the later period. Outside the South, turnout did decline dramatically, but it did not do so until 1912.