How Polarization Begets Polarization
Ideological Extremism in the US Congress
Samuel Merrill III author Bernard Grofman author Thomas L Brunell author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:29th Feb '24
£64.00
Supplier delay - available to order, but may take longer than usual.
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£19.99(9780197745236)
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 endorsed 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 widely separated from one another but each ideologically narrowly distributed. 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 ideological 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.
Among the leading students of the increasing polarization of American politics, the authors of this important new book lay out a novel institutional perspective on the interaction between polarization in Congress and competition at the district level. * Robert D. Putnam, Research Professor, Harvard Kennedy School and co-author of The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. *
Merrill, Grofman, and Brunell have provided the most sophisticated analysis yet of how polarization results from competing demands on candidates to be moderate in order to appeal to the preferences of most voters vs. appealing to their own base for the sake of mobilizing extremists and their moneyed supporters. Their analysis reveals when these competing demands result in convergence to moderate positions, and when they lead to self-reinforcing polarization. * Robert Axelrod, William D. Hamilton Distinguished University Professor, Emeritus *
The literature on legislative polarization identifies numerous contributors, among them party sorting among voters, the influence of party activists, internal legislative organization, and the level of party parity. This book's contribution consists of integrating these disparate forces into a single dynamic model that generates the unhappy implication: polarization begets polarization. * Morris P. Fiorina, Wendt Family Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution *
Merrill, Grofman, and Brunell's deft theoretical and empirical examination of the complex links between congressional politics and district-level electoral competition delivers a coherent and persuasive account of how institutional processes have sustained and amplified partisan polarization. It is a major contribution to understanding this corrosive feature of present-day American politics. * Gary Jacobson, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Emeritus *
What's causing US politics to polarize? For a quick answer, blame the other party's appalling behavior! But for the best answer, read Merrill, Grofman, and Brunell's fascinating and sophisticated account of the hidden processes causing these disturbing patterns in American politics. * Gary King, Weatherhead University Professor, and Director of the Institute for Quantitative Political Science, Harvard University *
This is an ambitious book that tackles the ever-present question of why American politics has polarized-and continues to polarize today. The authors demonstrate how electoral and partisan incentives can propel partisans-from lawmakers to candidates and activists-to champion policies that increasingly diverge from the political center. An essential contribution to scholarship and debates about polarization and how it might one day be tamed. * Sarah Binder, George Washington University and The Brookings Institution *
The authors' presentation is sometimes challenging, but the resulting analysis makes this relatively short book very valuable for understanding American political polarization. Recommended. * Choice *
ISBN: 9780197745229
Dimensions: 156mm x 235mm x 15mm
Weight: 413g
194 pages