The Hollow Parties

The Hollow Parties PDF Author: Daniel Schlozman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691248559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
"In today's hyper-partisan America, the party divide seems to loom over every facet of life, political or not. Yet central as they are, parties have proved unable to meet their core tasks: building resonant programs, organizing actors into ordered conflict, policing boundaries, and linking the governed with the government. To understand how we came to the dysfunctional system we see today, we look back at how the parties formed and when and why they started to fail. In this major new book in American political development, the authors offer a full historical account of modern party politics, beginning with the rise of mass parties in the Jacksonian era through the post-Obama Democrats and the post-Trump Republicans. They show dynamic changes in parties over time, identifying six recurrent approaches that parties have taken-accommodationist, anti-party, pro-capital, policy-reform, radical, and populist-and focus on how successive actors melded inherited forms together with novel approaches to construct new projects for power. They date the emergence of our hollow-party era to the demise of the "New Deal order" by the late 1970s. While acknowledging changes in both parties, the authors emphasize the decisive role of the right in bringing it about. With deep historical grounding and extensive original research, the authors argue that it was the Republican Party that broke American politics"--

The Hollow Parties

The Hollow Parties PDF Author: Daniel Schlozman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691248559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
"In today's hyper-partisan America, the party divide seems to loom over every facet of life, political or not. Yet central as they are, parties have proved unable to meet their core tasks: building resonant programs, organizing actors into ordered conflict, policing boundaries, and linking the governed with the government. To understand how we came to the dysfunctional system we see today, we look back at how the parties formed and when and why they started to fail. In this major new book in American political development, the authors offer a full historical account of modern party politics, beginning with the rise of mass parties in the Jacksonian era through the post-Obama Democrats and the post-Trump Republicans. They show dynamic changes in parties over time, identifying six recurrent approaches that parties have taken-accommodationist, anti-party, pro-capital, policy-reform, radical, and populist-and focus on how successive actors melded inherited forms together with novel approaches to construct new projects for power. They date the emergence of our hollow-party era to the demise of the "New Deal order" by the late 1970s. While acknowledging changes in both parties, the authors emphasize the decisive role of the right in bringing it about. With deep historical grounding and extensive original research, the authors argue that it was the Republican Party that broke American politics"--

When Movements Anchor Parties

When Movements Anchor Parties PDF Author: Daniel Schlozman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691164703
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Throughout American history, some social movements, such as organized labor and the Christian Right, have forged influential alliances with political parties, while others, such as the antiwar movement, have not. When Movements Anchor Parties provides a bold new interpretation of American electoral history by examining five prominent movements and their relationships with political parties. Taking readers from the Civil War to today, Daniel Schlozman shows how two powerful alliances—those of organized labor and Democrats in the New Deal, and the Christian Right and Republicans since the 1970s—have defined the basic priorities of parties and shaped the available alternatives in national politics. He traces how they diverged sharply from three other major social movements that failed to establish a place inside political parties—the abolitionists following the Civil War, the Populists in the 1890s, and the antiwar movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Moving beyond a view of political parties simply as collections of groups vying for preeminence, Schlozman explores how would-be influencers gain influence—or do not. He reveals how movements join with parties only when the alliance is beneficial to parties, and how alliance exacts a high price from movements. Their sweeping visions give way to compromise and partial victories. Yet as Schlozman demonstrates, it is well worth paying the price as movements reorient parties' priorities. Timely and compelling, When Movements Anchor Parties demonstrates how alliances have transformed American political parties.

The Polarizers

The Polarizers PDF Author: Sam Rosenfeld
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022640725X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
The idea of responsible partisanship, 1945-1952 -- Democrats and the politics of principle, 1952-1960 -- A choice, not an echo, 1945-1964 -- Power in movement, 1961-1968 -- The age of party reform, 1968-1975 -- The making of a vanguard party, 1969-1980 -- Liberal alliance-building for lean times, 1972-1980 -- Dawn of a new party period, 1980-2000 -- Conclusion polarization without responsibility, 2000-2016

Responsible Parties

Responsible Parties PDF Author: Frances Rosenbluth
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300241054
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
How popular democracy has paradoxically eroded trust in political systems worldwide, and how to restore confidence in democratic politics In recent decades, democracies across the world have adopted measures to increase popular involvement in political decisions. Parties have turned to primaries and local caucuses to select candidates; ballot initiatives and referenda allow citizens to enact laws directly; many places now use proportional representation, encouraging smaller, more specific parties rather than two dominant ones.Yet voters keep getting angrier.There is a steady erosion of trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating most recently in major populist victories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Frances Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro argue that devolving power to the grass roots is part of the problem. Efforts to decentralize political decision-making have made governments and especially political parties less effective and less able to address constituents’ long-term interests. They argue that to restore confidence in governance, we must restructure our political systems to restore power to the core institution of representative democracy: the political party.

Why Dominant Parties Lose

Why Dominant Parties Lose PDF Author: Kenneth F. Greene
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139466860
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Why have dominant parties persisted in power for decades in countries spread across the globe? Why did most eventually lose? Why Dominant Parties Lose develops a theory of single-party dominance, its durability, and its breakdown into fully competitive democracy. Greene shows that dominant parties turn public resources into patronage goods to bias electoral competition in their favor and virtually win elections before election day without resorting to electoral fraud or bone-crushing repression. Opposition parties fail because their resource disadvantages force them to form as niche parties with appeals that are out of step with the average voter. When the political economy of dominance erodes, the partisan playing field becomes fairer and opposition parties can expand into catchall competitors that threaten the dominant party at the polls. Greene uses this argument to show why Mexico transformed from a dominant party authoritarian regime under PRI rule to a fully competitive democracy.

Can America Govern Itself?

Can America Govern Itself? PDF Author: Frances E. Lee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108754260
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
Can America Govern Itself? brings together a diverse group of distinguished scholars to analyze how rising party polarization and economic inequality have affected the performance of American governing institutions. It is organized around two themes: the changing nature of representation in the United States; and how changes in the political environment have affected the internal processes of institutions, overall government performance, and policy outcomes. The chapters in this volume analyze concerns about power, influence and representation in American politics, the quality of deliberation and political communications, the management and implementation of public policy, and the performance of an eighteenth century constitution in today's polarized political environment. These renowned scholars provide a deeper and more systematic grasp of what is new, and what is perennial in challenges to democracy at a fraught moment.

Dynamics of the Party System

Dynamics of the Party System PDF Author: James L. Sundquist
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815723189
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Since the original edition of Dynamics of the Party System was published in 1973, American politics have continued on a tumultuous course. In the vacuum left by the decline of the Democratic and Republican parties, single-interest groups have risen and flourished. Protest movements on the left and the New Right at the opposite pole have challenged and divided the major parties, and the Reagan Revolution--in reversing a fifty-year trend toward governmental expansion--may turn out to have revolutionized the party system too. In this edition, as in the first, current political trends and events are placed in a historical and theoretical context. Focusing upon three major realignments of the past--those of the 1850s, the 1890s, and the 1930s--Sundquist traces the processes by which basic transformations of the country's two-party system occur. From the historical case studies, he fashions a theory as to the why and how of party realignment, then applies it to current and recent developments, through the first two years of the Reagan presidency and the midterm election of 1982. The theoretical sections of the first edition are refined in this one, the historical sections are revised to take account of recent scholarship, and the chapters dealing with the postwar period are almost wholly rewritten. The conclusion of the original work is, in general, confirmed: the existing party system is likely to be strengthened as public attention is again riveted on domestic economic issues, and the headlong trend of recent decades toward political independence and party disintegration reversed, at least for a time.

Breaking the Two-party Doom Loop

Breaking the Two-party Doom Loop PDF Author: Lee Drutman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190913851
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
American democracy is in deep crisis. But what do we do about it? That depends on how we understand the current threat.In Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop, Lee Drutman argues that we now have, for the first time in American history, a genuine two-party system, with two fully-sorted, truly national parties, divided over the character of the nation. And it's a disaster. It's a party system fundamentally at odds withour anti-majoritarian, compromise-oriented governing institutions. It threatens the very foundations of fairness and shared values on which our democracy depends.Deftly weaving together history, democratic theory, and cutting-edge political science research, Drutman tells the story of how American politics became so toxic and why the country is now trapped in a doom loop of escalating two-party warfare from which there is only one escape: increase the numberof parties through electoral reform. As he shows, American politics was once stable because the two parties held within them multiple factions, which made it possible to assemble flexible majorities and kept the climate of political combat from overheating. But as conservative Southern Democrats andliberal Northeastern Republicans disappeared, partisan conflict flattened and pulled apart. Once the parties became fully nationalized - a long-germinating process that culminated in 2010 - toxic partisanship took over completely. With the two parties divided over competing visions of nationalidentity, Democrats and Republicans no longer see each other as opponents, but as enemies. And the more the conflict escalates, the shakier our democracy feels.Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop makes a compelling case for large scale electoral reform - importantly, reform not requiring a constitutional amendment - that would give America more parties, making American democracy more representative, more responsive, and ultimately more stable.

The Great Alignment

The Great Alignment PDF Author: Alan I. Abramowitz
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300235127
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Alan I. Abramowitz has emerged as a leading spokesman for the view that our current political divide is not confined to a small group of elites and activists but a key feature of the American social and cultural landscape. The polarization of the political and media elites, he argues, arose and persists because it accurately reflects the state of American society. Here, he goes further: the polarization is unique in modern U.S. history. Today’s party divide reflects an unprecedented alignment of many different divides: racial and ethnic, religious, ideological, and geographic. Abramowitz shows how the partisan alignment arose out of the breakup of the old New Deal coalition; introduces the most important difference between our current era and past eras, the rise of “negative partisanship”; explains how this phenomenon paved the way for the Trump presidency; and examines why our polarization could even grow deeper. This statistically based analysis shows that racial anxiety is by far a better predictor of support for Donald Trump than any other factor, including economic discontent.

The Oxford Handbook of American Political Parties and Interest Groups

The Oxford Handbook of American Political Parties and Interest Groups PDF Author: L. Sandy Maisel
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019160920X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 720

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of American Political Parties and Interest Groups is a major new volume that will help scholars assess the current state of scholarship on parties and interest groups and the directions in which it needs to move. Never before has the academic literature on political parties received such an extended treatment. Twenty nine chapters critically assess both the major contributions to the literature and the ways in which it has developed. With contributions from most of the leading scholars in the field, the volume provides a definitive point of reference for all those working in and around the area. Equally important, the authors also identify areas of new and interesting research. These chapters offer a distinctive point of view, an argument about the successes and failures of past scholarship, and a set of recommendations about how future work ought to develop. This volume will help set the agenda for research on political parties and interest groups for the next decade. The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics are a set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of scholarship on American politics. Each volume focuses on a particular aspect of the field. The project is under the General Editorship of George C. Edwards III, and distinguished specialists in their respective fields edit each volume. The Handbooks aim not just to report on the discipline, but also to shape it as scholars critically assess the scholarship on a topic and propose directions in which it needs to move. The series is an indispensable reference for anyone working in American politics. General Editor for The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics: George C. Edwards III