Party systems

[Orser67]

I'm curious what other people think of the idea of "party systems." The standard definition seems to be:
1st party system (1790s-1820s): Democratic-Republicans and Federalists
2nd party system (1820s-1850s): Democrats and Whigs
3rd party system (1850s-1890s): Republicans and Democrats
4th party system (1890s-1930s): Republicans and Democrats
5th party system (1930s-?): Democrats and Republicans

Then some posit a sixth party system that started at some point after 1964.

Do you agree with the idea of party systems? How would you periodize the history of political parties?

[TNF]

I would say that in general, this is a good way to describe shifting party coalitions, although the specifics involved are sometimes questionable. Like, the First Party System including the Federalists as a credible opposition anytime after 1800 is pretty laughable. The only time that they came close to winning again after the disaster that was the Adams administration was in 1812, while running a Republican candidate for President with no coherent platform.

As far as a new system goes, I think it's pretty obvious that the Reaganite realignment of the Republicans from being the party of the status quo in the 1950s-70s to the party of aggressive economic growth, militarism, and all that jazz would represent something to that effect. Does the election of Clinton/Obama mean that said system has ended? I don't really know. I think that the parties are more or less the same as they were in the late 1970s-early 1980s, with the Republicans representing those interests concentrated in extraction industries like mining, oil, etc, and the Democrats representing the more cautious sectors like the banks and whatnot. Basically the Democrats remain a party of yuppie liberals and desperately poor minorities while the Republicans continue to be the party of religious lunatics and mustache-twirling industrial capitalists.