The Closed Partisan Mind

The Closed Partisan Mind PDF Author: Matthew D. Luttig
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501768905
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
The Closed Partisan Mind traces the roots of partisan polarization to psychological closed-mindedness in the electorate and the changing perception of politics created by polarized political leaders and the new media environment. American politics today can be defined by the intense and increasingly toxic divide between Democrats and Republicans. Matthew D. Luttig explores why so many Americans have endorsed this level of political conflict. Luttig illustrates how the psychological need for closure leads people, regardless of whether they identify as Democrat or Republican, to express more polarized political attitudes. This association between closed minds and partisan polarization is a new phenomenon and can be traced to broader changes in American society, such as the creation of ideologically distinct political parties and a fragmented media environment. These developments have simplified politics into a black-or-white, us-versus-them conflict—making politics appeal to those with closed minds. Today, strong partisans do not just cheer for their political party to win elections. Instead, more akin to religious true believers, strong partisans use their affiliation as a means of understanding right and wrong, friend and enemy, true and false. The Closed Partisan Mind reveals that these dynamics have manifested in both a new type of partisanship and a new type of partisan. The emergence of this new closed partisanship illustrates the dangers that polarization has wrought on society, politics, and the minds of Americans.

The Closed Partisan Mind

The Closed Partisan Mind PDF Author: Matthew D. Luttig
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501768905
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Closed Partisan Mind traces the roots of partisan polarization to psychological closed-mindedness in the electorate and the changing perception of politics created by polarized political leaders and the new media environment. American politics today can be defined by the intense and increasingly toxic divide between Democrats and Republicans. Matthew D. Luttig explores why so many Americans have endorsed this level of political conflict. Luttig illustrates how the psychological need for closure leads people, regardless of whether they identify as Democrat or Republican, to express more polarized political attitudes. This association between closed minds and partisan polarization is a new phenomenon and can be traced to broader changes in American society, such as the creation of ideologically distinct political parties and a fragmented media environment. These developments have simplified politics into a black-or-white, us-versus-them conflict—making politics appeal to those with closed minds. Today, strong partisans do not just cheer for their political party to win elections. Instead, more akin to religious true believers, strong partisans use their affiliation as a means of understanding right and wrong, friend and enemy, true and false. The Closed Partisan Mind reveals that these dynamics have manifested in both a new type of partisanship and a new type of partisan. The emergence of this new closed partisanship illustrates the dangers that polarization has wrought on society, politics, and the minds of Americans.

The Closed Partisan Mind

The Closed Partisan Mind PDF Author: Matthew D. Luttig
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501768913
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
The Closed Partisan Mind traces the roots of partisan polarization to psychological closed-mindedness in the electorate and the changing perception of politics created by polarized political leaders and the new media environment. American politics today can be defined by the intense and increasingly toxic divide between Democrats and Republicans. Matthew D. Luttig explores why so many Americans have endorsed this level of political conflict. Luttig illustrates how the psychological need for closure leads people, regardless of whether they identify as Democrat or Republican, to express more polarized political attitudes. This association between closed minds and partisan polarization is a new phenomenon and can be traced to broader changes in American society, such as the creation of ideologically distinct political parties and a fragmented media environment. These developments have simplified politics into a black-or-white, us-versus-them conflict—making politics appeal to those with closed minds. Today, strong partisans do not just cheer for their political party to win elections. Instead, more akin to religious true believers, strong partisans use their affiliation as a means of understanding right and wrong, friend and enemy, true and false. The Closed Partisan Mind reveals that these dynamics have manifested in both a new type of partisanship and a new type of partisan. The emergence of this new closed partisanship illustrates the dangers that polarization has wrought on society, politics, and the minds of Americans.

Partisan Hearts and Minds

Partisan Hearts and Minds PDF Author: Donald P. Green
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300101560
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
A treatment of party identification, in which three political scientists argue that identification with political parties powerfully determines how citizens look at politics and cast their ballots. They build a case for the continuing theoretical and political significance of partisan identities.

Competing Motives in the Partisan Mind

Competing Motives in the Partisan Mind PDF Author: Eric Groenendyk
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199969809
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Party identification may be the single most powerful predictor of voting behavior, yet scholars disagree whether this is good or bad for democracy. Competing Motives in the Partisan Mind provides a window into the nature of party identification by examining circumstances in which political attitudes and party identities collide.

Changing Minds or Changing Channels?

Changing Minds or Changing Channels? PDF Author: Kevin Arceneaux
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022604744X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
We live in an age of media saturation, where with a few clicks of the remote—or mouse—we can tune in to programming where the facts fit our ideological predispositions. But what are the political consequences of this vast landscape of media choice? Partisan news has been roundly castigated for reinforcing prior beliefs and contributing to the highly polarized political environment we have today, but there is little evidence to support this claim, and much of what we know about the impact of news media come from studies that were conducted at a time when viewers chose from among six channels rather than scores. Through a series of innovative experiments, Kevin Arceneaux and Martin Johnson show that such criticism is unfounded. Americans who watch cable news are already polarized, and their exposure to partisan programming of their choice has little influence on their political positions. In fact, the opposite is true: viewers become more polarized when forced to watch programming that opposes their beliefs. A much more troubling consequence of the ever-expanding media environment, the authors show, is that it has allowed people to tune out the news: the four top-rated partisan news programs draw a mere three percent of the total number of people watching television. Overturning much of the conventional wisdom, Changing Minds or Changing Channels? demonstrate that the strong effects of media exposure found in past research are simply not applicable in today’s more saturated media landscape.

Uncivil Agreement

Uncivil Agreement PDF Author: Lilliana Mason
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022652468X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
The psychology behind political partisanship: “The kind of research that will change not just how you think about the world but how you think about yourself.” —Ezra Klein, Vox Political polarization in America has moved beyond disagreements about matters of policy. For the first time in decades, research has shown that members of both parties hold strongly unfavorable views of their opponents. This is polarization rooted in social identity, and it is growing. The campaign and election of Donald Trump laid bare this fact of the American electorate, its successful rhetoric of “us versus them” tapping into a powerful current of anger and resentment. With Uncivil Agreement, Lilliana Mason looks at the growing social gulf across racial, religious, and cultural lines, which have recently come to divide neatly between the two major political parties. She argues that group identifications have changed the way we think and feel about ourselves and our opponents. Even when Democrats and Republicans can agree on policy outcomes, they tend to view one other with distrust and to work for party victory over all else. Although the polarizing effects of social divisions have simplified our electoral choices and increased political engagement, they have not been a force that is, on balance, helpful for American democracy. Bringing together theory from political science and social psychology, Uncivil Agreement clearly describes this increasingly “social” type of polarization, and adds much to our understanding of contemporary politics.

The Partisan Sort

The Partisan Sort PDF Author: Matthew Levendusky
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226473678
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
As Washington elites drifted toward ideological poles over the past few decades, did ordinary Americans follow their lead? In The Partisan Sort, Matthew Levendusky reveals that we have responded to this trend—but not, for the most part, by becoming more extreme ourselves. While polarization has filtered down to a small minority of voters, it also has had the more significant effect of reconfiguring the way we sort ourselves into political parties. In a marked realignment since the 1970s—when partisan affiliation did not depend on ideology and both major parties had strong liberal and conservative factions—liberals today overwhelmingly identify with Democrats, as conservatives do with Republicans. This “sorting,” Levendusky contends, results directly from the increasingly polarized terms in which political leaders define their parties. Exploring its far-reaching implications for the American political landscape, he demonstrates that sorting makes voters more loyally partisan, allowing campaigns to focus more attention on mobilizing committed supporters. Ultimately, Levendusky concludes, this new link between party and ideology represents a sea change in American politics.

Closing of the American Mind

Closing of the American Mind PDF Author: Allan Bloom
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439126267
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
The brilliant, controversial, bestselling critique of American culture that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times)—now featuring a new afterword by Andrew Ferguson in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition. In 1987, eminent political philosopher Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, an appraisal of contemporary America that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times) and has not only been vindicated, but has also become more urgent today. In clear, spirited prose, Bloom argues that the social and political crises of contemporary America are part of a larger intellectual crisis: the result of a dangerous narrowing of curiosity and exploration by the university elites. Now, in this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, acclaimed author and journalist Andrew Ferguson contributes a new essay that describes why Bloom’s argument caused such a furor at publication and why our culture so deeply resists its truths today.

Insecure Majorities

Insecure Majorities PDF Author: Frances E. Lee
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022640918X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
“[A] tour de force. Building upon her argument in Beyond Ideology, she adds an important wrinkle into the current divide between the parties in Congress.” —Perspectives on Politics As Democrats and Republicans continue to vie for political advantage, Congress remains paralyzed by partisan conflict. That the last two decades have seen some of the least productive Congresses in recent history is usually explained by the growing ideological gulf between the parties, but this explanation misses another fundamental factor influencing the dynamic. In contrast to politics through most of the twentieth century, the contemporary Democratic and Republican parties compete for control of Congress at relative parity, and this has dramatically changed the parties’ incentives and strategies in ways that have driven the contentious partisanship characteristic of contemporary American politics. With Insecure Majorities, Frances E. Lee offers a controversial new perspective on the rise of congressional party conflict, showing how the shift in competitive circumstances has had a profound impact on how Democrats and Republicans interact. Beginning in the 1980s, most elections since have offered the prospect of a change of party control. Lee shows, through an impressive range of interviews and analysis, how competition for control of the government drives members of both parties to participate in actions that promote their own party’s image and undercut that of the opposition, including the perpetual hunt for issues that can score political points by putting the opposing party on the wrong side of public opinion. More often than not, this strategy stands in the way of productive bipartisan cooperation—and it is also unlikely to change as long as control of the government remains within reach for both parties.

Reimagining Democracy

Reimagining Democracy PDF Author: David M. Farrell
Publisher: Cornell Selects
ISBN: 150174934X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
The Lawrence and Lynne Brown Democracy Medal, presented by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, recognizes outstanding individuals, groups, and organizations that produce innovations to further democracy in the United States or around the world. 2019 Brown Democracy Medal winners David M. Farrell and Jane Suiter are co-leads on the Irish Citizens' Assembly Project, which has transformed Irish politics over the past decade. The project started in 2011 and led to a series of significant policy decisions, including successful referenda on abortion and marriage equality. Thanks to generous funding from The Pennsylvania State University, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access (OA) volumes, available from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other Open Access repositories.