As a result, candidates can’t count on the calendar to bail them out.

Joe Biden, for instance, won’t be able to rely on a big win March 3 on Super Tuesday, which has long been a bulwark for relatively moderate Democrats who often count on the support of black, Southern or conservative voters. Now it is fairly representative of the country; if he has faltered in national polls, he will probably falter here as well.

Activist-backed candidates won’t benefit from lower-turnout caucuses, which have long offered much-needed oxygen to ideologically consistent candidates like Bernie Sanders or Mike Huckabee. Candidates like these will claim victory on far fewer nights than they have in the past.

Over all, the increasingly balanced, fast and representative post-early-state calendar could point toward a somewhat less dramatic primary season. The calendar could reduce the number of apparent twists and turns, as there are fewer opportunities for candidates to pull off long streaks of big wins with a favorable group of states.

The calendar still has one clearly unrepresentative feature: Iowa (Feb. 3) and New Hampshire (Feb. 11), the two overwhelmingly white states that still reign at the top. With the rest of the calendar more balanced, these two states stand out as the most distinctive feature of the primary season. If the calendar will offer an advantage to any kind of candidate, it will be one who fares well in those two places.

Here are some of the big changes, and what they mean.

The calendar is faster

Over all, 60 percent of delegates will be awarded by March 15. This is mainly because of California’s move to Super Tuesday, which comes just three days after the South Carolina primary.