Constitutional Crisis, Norm Derogation, and the Broader Impact of Partisan Polarization in Contemporary American Politics

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-36
Author(s):  
Michael T. Oswald ◽  
John D. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
American Politics ◽  
Partisan Polarization

Reframing Polarization: Social Groups and “Culture Wars”

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (02) ◽  
pp. 432-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Muste
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Group ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Culture War ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Group Members

ABSTRACTRecent analyses of American politics often invoke the term “culture war” depicting sharp and increasing divisions within the American polity. Most of this research defines culture in terms of values and beliefs about social issues and defines polarization in terms of partisan and issue divisions. I evaluate the claim of worsening “culture wars” by using a conceptualization of political culture that focuses on social groups and measuring polarization as both social group members’ attitudes toward their own social in-groups and out-groups, and the effects of group attitudes on partisanship. Analyzing inter-group attitudes from 1964 to 2012 for social group cleavages defined by race, class, age, sex, and religion shows that polarization in attitudes toward social groups is minimal and generally stable, and most group members feel positively toward out-groups. Partisan and issue polarization seen in prior research do not extend to deep or increasing inter-group hostility that could reinforce issue-based and partisan polarization.

“We Can’t Wait”: Barack Obama, Partisan Polarization and the Administrative Presidency

The Forum ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth S. Lowande ◽  
Sidney M. Milkis
Keyword(s):  
American Politics ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Partisan Polarization

AbstractScholars and pundits have usually depicted Barack Obama as a prisoner of partisan rancor in Congress, which has been especially fierce on the Republican side of the aisle. We argue, to the contrary, that he has actively – if sometimes reluctantly – embraced the role of party leader, even in the management of the bureaucracy, the arena in which the modern presidency’s claim to transcend partisanship was nurtured. The Administration’s public celebration of unilateralism – typified by the “We Can’t Wait” initiative – is emblematic of a far-reaching development within the presidency and American politics: the rise of an

Upending American Politics

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
American Politics ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Grassroots Groups ◽  
Organizational Configurations ◽  
Fresh Perspective ◽  
Key Questions

Analysts and citizens alike struggle to comprehend recent gyrations in US politics. The country did an apparent U-turn in just eight short years, from the election of Barack Obama and an all-Democratic Congress in 2008 to the election of Donald Trump and confirmation of GOP control of Congress in 2016. Twice in under a decade, ordinary citizens reacted by organizing local grassroots groups all over the country—with Tea Parties starting in 2009 and anti-Trump resistance groups starting in late 2016. Upending American Politics offers a fresh perspective on these developments by focusing on recent and newly changing organizational configurations, such as voluntary local citizens’ groups, elite advocacy organizations, consortia of wealthy donors, and candidate-led political campaigns. Contributors have collected many new kinds of data to document and probe changing organizational configurations at the national level and in the pivotal states of Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania. The volume offers insightful answers to key questions: Why has partisan polarization unfolded in a heavily rightward-tilted manner that sees Republicans embracing ever-more extreme positions? Why have widespread grassroots citizens movements erupted twice just eight years, and what impact have these movements had on the major political parties?

After the “Master Theory”: Downs, Schattschneider, and the Rebirth of Policy-Focused Analysis

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 643-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob S. Hacker ◽  
Paul Pierson
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Organized Interest ◽  
Government Authority

Drawing on the pioneering work of Anthony Downs, political scientists have tended to characterize American politics as a game among undifferentiated competitors, played out largely through elections, with outcomes reflecting how formal rules translate election results into legislative votes. In this perspective, voters, campaigns, elections, and the ideological distribution of legislators merit extensive scrutiny. Other features of the political environment—most notably, the policies these legislators help create and the interest groups that struggle over these policies—are deemed largely peripheral. However, contemporary politics often looks very different than the world described by Downs. Instead, it more closely resembles the world depicted by E. E. Schattschneider—a world in which policy and groups loom large, the influence of voters is highly conditional, and the key struggle is not over gaining office but over reshaping governance. Over the last twenty years, a growing body of scholarship has emerged that advances this corrective vision—an approach we call “policy-focused political science.” In this framework, politics is centrally about the exercise of government authority for particular substantive purposes. Such exercises of authority create the “terrain” for political struggle, profoundly shaping both individual and group political behavior. More important, because policies can be so consequential, they also serve as the “prize” for many of the most enduring political players, especially organized interest groups. The payoffs of a policy-focused perspective include a more accurate portrayal of the institutional environment of modern politics, an appreciation for the fundamental importance of organized groups, a better understanding of the dynamics of policy change, and a more accurate mapping of interests, strategies, and influence. These benefits are illustrated through brief examinations of two of the biggest changes in American politics over the last generation: asymmetric partisan polarization and the growing concentration of income at the top.

Refusal to Mourn

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Runions
Keyword(s):  
American Politics ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
American People ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
The Public ◽  
American Civil Religion ◽  
The Us ◽  
Robert Bellah

In her recent book Precarious Life, Judith Butler points out that not more than ten days after 9/11, on 20 September 2001, George W. Bush urged the American people to put aside their grief; she suggests that such a refusal to mourn leads to a kind of national melancholia. Using psychoanalytic theory on melancholia, this article diagnoses causes and effects of such national melancholia. Further, it considers how a refusal to mourn in prophetic and apocalyptic texts and their interpretations operates within mainstream US American politics like the encrypted loss of the melancholic, thus creating the narcissism, guilt, and aggression that sustain the pervasive disavowal of loss in the contemporary moment. This article explore the ways in which the texts of Ezekiel, Micah, Revelation, and their interpreters exhibit the guilt and aggression of melancholia, in describing Israel as an unfaithful and wicked woman whose pain should not be mourned. These melancholic patterns are inherited by both by contemporary apocalyptic discourses and by the discourse of what Robert Bellah calls ‘American civil religion’, in which the US is the new Christian Israel; thus they help to position the public to accept and perpetuate the violence of war, and not to mourn it.

Investigating the President

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas L. Kriner ◽  
Eric Schickler
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Theater ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Presidential Power ◽  
Political Pressure ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Approval Rating ◽  
Congressional Investigations ◽  
Over Time

Although congressional investigations have provided some of the most dramatic moments in American political history, they have often been dismissed as mere political theater. But these investigations are far more than grandstanding. This book shows that congressional investigations are a powerful tool for members of Congress to counter presidential aggrandizement. By shining a light on alleged executive wrongdoing, investigations can exert significant pressure on the president and materially affect policy outcomes. This book constructs the most comprehensive overview of congressional investigative oversight to date, analyzing nearly 13,000 days of hearings, spanning more than a century, from 1898 through 2014. The book examines the forces driving investigative power over time and across chambers, and identifies how hearings might influence the president’s strategic calculations through the erosion of the president’s public approval rating, and uncover the pathways through which investigations have shaped public policy. Put simply, by bringing significant political pressure to bear on the president, investigations often afford Congress a blunt, but effective check on presidential power—without the need to worry about veto threats or other hurdles such as Senate filibusters. In an era of intense partisan polarization and institutional dysfunction, the book delves into the dynamics of congressional investigations and how Congress leverages this tool to counterbalance presidential power.

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