ISBN:
9780197745267
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource
Series Statement:
Oxford scholarship online
Series Statement:
Political Science
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als
DDC:
306.260973
Keywords:
United States
;
Polarization (Social sciences) History 21st century
;
Political parties History 21st century
;
Right and left (Political science) History 21st century
;
Radicalism History 21st century
;
Opposition (Political science) History 21st century
;
Polarization (Social sciences) Political aspects
;
Political parties
;
Right and left (Political science)
;
Radicalism 21st century
;
Opposition (Political science)
;
Society
;
Society & culture: general
;
United States Politics and government 21st century
Abstract:
This title explains the feedback loop that generates ever-increasing polarisation - the signature feature of contemporary American politics. This loop is powered by the discipline exerted by the respective political parties and their activists on both their Congressional members and their district candidates. The authors show that tight party discipline produces party delegations in Congress that are widely separated from one another but each ideologically concentrated - in a word, polarised.
Abstract:
"Extreme polarization in American politics - and especially in the U.S. Congress - is perhaps the most confounding political phenomenon of our time. This book binds together polarization in Congress and polarization in the electorate within an ever-expanding feedback loop. This loop is powered by the discipline exerted by the respective political parties on their Congressional members and district candidates and maintained by the voters in each Congressional district who must choose between the alternatives offered. These alternatives are just as extreme in competitive as in lop-sided districts. Tight national party discipline produces party delegations in Congress that are each ideologically narrowly distributed but widely separated from one another. As district constituencies become more polarized and are egged on by activists, parties are further motivated to move past a threshold and appeal to their respective bases rather than to voters in the political center. America has indeed acquired parties with clear platforms - once thought to be a desirable goal, but these parties are now feuding camps. What resolution might there be? Just as the progressive movement slowly replaced the Gilded Age, might a new reform effort replace the current squabble? Or could an asymmetry develop in the partisan constraints that would lead to ascendancy of the center, or might a new and over-riding issue generate a cross-cutting dimension, opening the door to a new politics? Only the future will tell"--
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index
DOI:
10.1093/oso/9780197745229.001.0001
URL:
Volltext
(lizenzpflichtig)
URL:
Volltext
(lizenzpflichtig)
