John H. Aldrich is Pfizer-Pratt University Professor of Political Science at Duke University. He is author of "Why Parties: A Second Look "(2011), coeditor of "Positive Changes in Political Science" (2007), and author of "Why Parties" (1995) and "Before the Convention" (1980). He is a past president of both the Southern Political Science Association and the Midwest Political Science Association and is serving as president of the American Political Science Association. In 2001 he was elected a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.