"We argue that ideology lacks meaning in the United States: what is conservative and liberal is that which Republicans and Democrats have labeled "conservative," and "liberal." This premise is central to how we understand the role of the political parties in American political behavior and why political party leaders are so essential to crafting the beliefs of partisans in the electorate. Second, we trace how the parties have evolved on issues over time, highlighting the lack of ideological consistency in the party platforms. We then explain how negative partisanship and partisan-motivated reasoning create a situation where partisans are psychologically rewarded for adopting the party's position and being receptive to information from their own party while blocking information from other sources"-- Provided by publisher.
In The Power of Partisanship, Joshua J. Dyck and Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz argue that the growth in partisan polarization in the United States, and the resulting negativity voters feel towards their respective opposition party, has far-reaching effects on how Americans behave both inside and outside the realm of politics. Dyck and Pearson-Merkowitz show how partisanship influences the electorate's support for democratic norms, willingness to engage in risk related to financial and healthcare decisions, interracial interactions, and previously non-political decisions like what we like to eat for dinner. Partisanship prevents people from learning from their interactions with friends or the realities of their neighborhoods, and even makes them oblivious to their own economic hardship. Drawing on a series of original surveys and experiments conducted between 2014 and 2020, Dyck and Pearson-Merkowitz show how the dominance of partisanship as a decision cue has fundamentally transformed our understanding of both political and non-political behavior." -- Back cover.
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