We frequently discuss consultants, in what we might call their “causal role” in the political process—the consequences or effects of political consulting. I would like to turn to the other side, that is to look at consultants as an effect rather than a cause. This connects the rise of political consultants with the decline of the political party.

If you think about the role of consultants in contemporary politics you can't separate consultants from the other pieces of the new politics in the United States: media, polling, direct mail and all the other factors that have formed and transformed American politics. This is part of the on-going transformation of American politics that is related, in turn, to the long-term decay, decline, and collapse of party organization in much of the United States. Political consultants have penetrated all of American politics. In upstate New York where I live there are towns that I haven't even heard of where consultants are working. They may be in the dairy business in off years. Why have consultants penetrated even the political boondocks in America? The obvious reason is that party organization throughout the United States has reached a state of total decay and collapse.