Political Polarization

Extreme polarization in American politics 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.

Political polarization has become an increasingly prominent phenomenon in contemporary America, shaping the nation's social, cultural, and political landscapes. The divide between ideological factions has deepened, leading to a climate of intense partisanship and ideological rigidity. This audiobook, The Rise of Political Polarization: Understanding Social Movements and Ideological Divides in Contemporary America, delves into the multifaceted nature of political polarization, focusing on its causes, manifestations, and consequences.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER "For anyone who wants to stand up to disinformation and deepen their understanding of politics without getting lost in jargon, this book is essential reading.” —Brian Tyler Cohen, YouTuber and bestselling author of Shameless From the host of...

Increasingly, political parties have adopted not only different policies, but different sets of facts. As E. J. Fagan argues, partisan think tanks have helped create these alternate realities in their capacity as de facto formal party organizations. Through the analyses generated by aligned think tanks, political elites on both the left and right frequently offer radically different assessments of a policy's consequences.

If you were asked when America became polarized, your answer would likely depend on your age: You might say during Barack Obama’s presidency, or with the post-9/11 war on terror, or the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, or the “Reagan Revolution” and the the rise of the New Right. How did the US become so divided? Fault Lines offers a richly told, wide-angle history view toward an answer.

Every week, political pundits publish books promoting one side (the pundit’s) as good, and the other side as evil. Whether the pundit promotes a liberal or conservative view, the book convinces zealots, and annoys everyone else. For the rest of us, we see and feel the problem. Psychologists teach us why and how the problem exists. Politicians leverage the problem to gain personal political advantage.

Rarely has America been so bitterly divided. Partisans now view those with differing opinions as the enemy. Cable news programs inflame passions rather than inform viewers. Social media provides the most irrational partisans a venue to spew their hatred and bias. Town hall meetings, once the staple of representative democracy, have degenerated into choreographed shouting matches. Money flows into campaigns at unprecedented rates. Centrists are nearly extinct in Congress, where compromise has become a dirty word.

A brilliant analysis of the transition in world economics, finance, and power as the era of globalization ends and gives way to new power centers and institutions. The world is at a turning point similar to the fall of communism. Then, many focused on the collapse itself, and failed to see that...

Social psychologist Peter T. Coleman explores how conflict resolution and complexity science provide guidance for dealing with seemingly intractable political differences. Deploying the concept of attractors in dynamical systems, he explains why we are stuck in this rut as well as the unexpected ways that deeply rooted oppositions can and do change.

At a time of political tribalism and ideological purity tests, it can be hard to remember that cross-party hatred isn't an inherent feature of partisan politics. But, as this book reminds us, a backward glance - or a quick survey of so many retiring members of Congress - tells us that even in the past decade partisan rancor has grown exponentially. In Angry Politics, Stacy G. Ulbig asks why. Even more to the point, she traces the trend to the place where it all might begin - the college campus, among the youngest segment of the electorate.

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.