Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Political polarization: Political polarization refers to the divergence of political attitudes to extreme, opposing ends. It involves the separation of individuals or groups into distinct, antagonistic factions, amplifying differences and reducing common ground, often resulting in heightened conflict and reduced willingness to compromise. See also Political Parties, Parliamentary system, Democracy, Society._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Dictionary of Arguments. | |||
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Policy of the United States on Political Polarization - Dictionary of Arguments
Levitsky I 261 Political Polarization/Policy of the United States/Levitsky/Ziblatt: Two forces underlie polarization in America: racial and religious affiliation and increasing economic inequality. The Republican Party has been the main cause of the rift that has opened up between the parties(1). Since 2008, with its blockade attitude, hostility toward political opponents and extremist political demands, it has occasionally acted like an anti-system party. Its quarter-century march to the right was made possible by the erosion of its organizational core. Over the past 25 years, their governance structure has been increasingly undermined by financially strong outside groups, such as Americans for Tax Freedom and Americans for Prosperity, whose ability to raise funds has enabled them to literally "dictate" the political agenda of many Republicans elected to office Levitsky I 262 but also by the growing influence of Fox News and other right-wing media. Levitsky/Ziblatt: To reduce polarization, the Republican Party must be reformed, if not completely refounded. Above all, it must rebuild its own establishment. To do so, its leadership must regain control over four key areas: finance, grassroots organization, member information and candidate selection. Levitsky I 265 Democratic Party: Although the Democratic Party is not the main driving force behind the deepening polarization of American politics and society, it could play a role in mitigating it. Some Democrats have suggested that the party should focus on recapturing the so-called white working class, white voters without college degrees. This was a big issue after Hillary Clinton's traumatic 2016 election defeat. Both Bernie Sanders and some moderates urged the Democrats to reach out to workers who had turned away from them in the so-called Rust Belt, the Apalach Islands and elsewhere(2). To do this, many opinion makers felt it was necessary for the Democrats to move away from their pro-immigration stance and their so-called identity policies (the latter being only vaguely defined, but usually including the promotion of ethnic diversity and, more recently, initiatives against police violence, such as "Black Lives Matter"). In a guest commentary in the New York Times, Mark Penn and Andrew Stein urged Democrats to abandon identity politics and moderate their stance on immigration in order to regain voters from Levitsky I 266 the white working class(3). Although rarely stated so clearly, the core message is that the Democrats should push back the influence of ethnic minorities to bring the white working class back on their side. Levitsky/Ziblatt: For us this is a terrible idea. To reduce the influence of minorities in the Democratic Party would be (...) Levitsky I 267 the wrong way to mitigate polarization. 1. Jacob Hacker/Paul Pierson, Off Center. The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy, New Haven, Connecticut, 2006; Mann/Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks; Grossman/Hopkins, Asymmetric Politics; Michael Barber/Nolan McCarty, »Causes and Consequences of Polarization«, in Persily (Ed.), Solutions to Political Polarization in America. 2. 65Mark Penn/Andrew Stein, »Back to the Center, Democrats«, in: The New York Times, 6th Juli 2017; Bernie Sanders, »How Democrats Can Stop Losing Elections«, in: The New York Times, 13th Juni 2017; see also Mark Lilla, »The End of Identity Liberalism«, in: The New York Times, 18th November 2016. 3. Penn/Stein, »Back to the Center, Democrats«; see also Lilla, »The End of Identity Liberalism«._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. "Vs" indicates differences in content, not necessarily the chronological progression of a controversy. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Policy of the United States | ||
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