In August 1991, the Political Organization and Parties Section of the American Political Science Association sponsored a workshop entitled 'Machine Politics, Sound Bites, and Nostalgia: Substantive Issues and Methodological Problems in the Study of Party Organization, ' which included a panel of scholars presenting brief papers on research questions and a panel of practitioners responding from their personal experience. The results of these panels are included in this publication

Michael Margolis is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Cincinnati. John C. Green is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Akron, and Director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.