In the United States, the McGovern-Fraser Commission reforms of 1971 sought to democratize the structure of the Democratic Party by replacing nominating conventions dominated by state and local power brokers with citizen primaries. These reforms shifted power from the old white working-class base of the New Deal Democrats to a new Democratic elite, which, while more racially diverse, for the most part was still largely white but far more affluent, educated, culturally liberal, and skeptical of government intervention in markets.
