Notes that party decomposition is likely to continue. The probable future pattern is one where the major parties continue to exert influence on the voting choices of the American public, but where many voters are available for mobilization by competing movements. (Author/AM)

This article reviews the articles which follow in this special issue on the political influence of the aged, discusses the effects of public policy on the aged, and asks whether there is a "politics of aging." (AM)

The commitment on the part of the national government to provide some assistance to the elderly began in the 1930s, but in the last decade or so, this commitment has substantially increased. (Author/AM)

The new pressures on aging policy are certain to bring with them inequitable and unintended consequences. The very old have not shared fully in the policy gains made by the older population generally, yet they will possibly suffer most from whatever "aging backlash" develops in the future. (Author/AM)

Focuses on five types of political alienation: estrangement; negative evaluation of the American political system, negative evaluation of the competence of public officials, negative evaluation of the motives of public officials, and rejection of the institution of elections. (Author/AM)

From the limited data, the authors are able to show that approval of incumbent performance is an important (but not sole) determinant of diffuse support for the institution. (Author/AM)

President Carter's initial programs and choices for economic advisory positions suggest that he will continue to try Keynesian policies, although he has scaled down his aspirations for their success. As these policies encounter difficulties, however, more careful analyses of the causes of inflation and of what expenditures are compatible with…

Argues that with the presidential elections of 1976 now history, the electorate may hope for greater support to those people who see social problems as public issues rather than psychological dilemmas in search of biomedical remedies. No one close to social science and related to government could fail to detect in the last decade a powerful drift…

Concludes that the idea of practice is so important at this time because the notion of practice (of the fusion of theoretical practical knowledge, of the public and private life, of expert and citizen) is threatening to the institutions and groups whose continued dominance rests in part on their privileged claim to truth: the large corporations,…