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Summary

Much of the modern study of mass political behavior in the United States often returns to three books released during the Eisenhower administration. Voting by Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee (1954) approached its subject from a sociological perspective. Anthony Downs’ (1957) An Economic Theory of Democracy is the foundational study of political decision-making from the rational-choice perspective. The American Voter by Campbell et al. (1960) pioneered the use of the mass survey for political research. These approaches to studying politics are ubiquitous now, but, at the time, these were pathbreaking methodological advances. The authors of these books were to the study of politics what Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley were to popular music.

There is little doubt that increasing polarization over the last decade has transformed the American political landscape. In The Other Divide, Yanna Krupnikov and John Barry Ryan challenge the nature and extent of that polarization. They find that more than party, Americans are divided by involvement in politics. On one side is a group of Americans who are deeply involved in politics and very expressive about their political views; on the other side is a group much less involved in day-to-day political outcomes. While scholars and journalists have assumed that those who are most vocal about their political views are representative of America at large, they are in fact a relatively small group whose voices are amplified by the media. By considering the political differences between the deeply involved and the rest of the American public, Krupnikov and Ryan present a broader picture of the American electorate than the one that often appears in the news.

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1 - A House Divided against Itself?

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The Other Divide

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2 results

1 - A House Divided against Itself?

Summary

The Other Divide