Byron Shafer examines how changes to Democratic Party rules between 1968 and 1972 - designed to give more power to ordinary voters - paradoxically created a new elite that transformed American politics. The reforms, driven by outrage over the chaos of the 1968 Chicago convention, replaced the old system of party bosses choosing candidates with primaries and caucuses that empowered activists. Shafer demonstrates how these changes benefited educated, middle-class professionals at the expense of working-class Democrats who had been the party's traditional base. The book follows the reform process in granular detail, tracing how different factions within the party maneuvered to shape new rules in their favor. Shafer shows that the reformers genuinely believed they were making the party more democratic, but their conception of democracy reflected their own class position. The unintended consequences included the nomination of George McGovern in 1972 and, more broadly, the transformation of both parties into institutions dominated by their ideological activists rather than their more moderate members. Shafer's analysis helps explain why American politics became more polarized and why working-class voters increasingly felt alienated from a Democratic Party that claimed to represent them. Written as academic political science, the book nonetheless tells a compelling story about how well-intentioned reforms can reshape power in unexpected ways.