Critical Elections and Changes in American Election Politics Zhang Yeliang (7) Following an analysis of critical elections and the role they play in American election politics, this article further comments on related theories and reviews. It elaborates changes in American election politics since the end of the 1960s and points out their significance in American political process and the 2004 elections. The author believes that the disintegration of New Deal party system has brought about evident and continuous changes in the social and demographic structure of electorate bases and party identification. The 2004 elections will continue to be a match between the two political parties of generally equal strength. The outstanding feature of the current election is that foreign policy and security issues have become the main focus. The trend of American election politics shows that it will be difficult for any single party to take control of both the White House and the Congress for long.