For Better or Worse: How Political Consultants Are Changing Elections in the United States

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For Better or Worse: How Political Consultants Are Changing Elections in the United States. By David A. Dulio. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004. 289p. $71.50 cloth, $23.95 paper.

This analysis addresses two important developments in American political campaigns: the increase in the presence of political consultants and their effect on campaigns. In pursuing this analysis, David Dulio focuses on the central questions of whether consultants are changing the nature of campaigns and whether their presence has displaced the role of political parties. The analysis draws heavily on a survey conducted in 1999 among 505 political consultants by American University staff.