Britannica Sources used in this answer

How did V.O. Key, Jr., describe critical elections in U.S. political history?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Map of Canada displaying the results of the 2008 federal election by province and territory, with regions shaded to indicate the leading party's share of the popular vote: blue for Conservative, red for Liberal, light blue for Bloc Quebecois, and orange for New Democratic Party. Each area is labeled with the number of seats won by each party, and a legend at the bottom summarizes national seat totals for each party. — election Canada's 2008 federal election results.

In the context of political science, V.O. Key, Jr. described "critical" or "realigning" elections as those in which American voters shifted their long-term party affiliations in a massive way from one political party to another.1

Key identified these elections as pivotal moments that gave rise to extended periods of dominance for a specific party, such as the Republican Party from 1860 to 1932 and the Democratic Party following 1932. His work in this area was a significant contribution to the behavioralist approach in political science, which emphasized the use of empirical, quantitative data to analyze election trends and voter behavior.1