Party Wars (The Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture Series) (Volume 10)

Sinclair

ISBN 10: 0806137797 / ISBN 13: 9780806137797

Published by OUP, 2006

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # ria9780806137797_new

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Party Wars (The Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture Series) (Volume 10)
• Publisher: OUP
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0806137797
• ISBN 13: 9780806137797
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Party Wars is the first book to describe how the ideological gulf now separating the two major parties developed and how today’s fierce partisan competition affects the political process and national policy.

Barbara Sinclair traces the current ideological divide to changes in the Republican party in the 1970s and 1980s, including the rise of neoconservativism and the Religious Right. Because of these historical developments, Democratic and Republican voters today differ substantially in what they consider good public policy, and so do the politicians they elect.

Polarization has produced institutional consequences in the House of Representatives and in the Senate―witness the majority party’s threat in 2004–2005 to use the “nuclear option” of abolishing the filibuster. The president’s strategies for dealing with Congress have also been affected, raising the price of compromise with the opposing party and allowing a Republican president to govern largely from the ideological right. Other players in the national policy community―interest groups, think tanks, and the media―have also joined one or the other partisan “team.”

Party Wars puts all the parts together to provide the first government-wide survey of the impact of polarization on national politics. Sinclair pinpoints weaknesses in the highly polarized system and offers several remedies.

About the Author

Barbara Sinclair was Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is the author of Unorthodox Lawmaking: New Legislative Processes in the U.S. Congress.