Reconsidering Parties and Partisanship

Since partisanship has become a powerful force in the U.S., academic literature is replete with different approaches to this complex, multifaceted topic. Reconsidering Parties and Partisanship brings together prominent scholars working on issues related to parties and partisanship for a collection of essays on how American partisanship is shifting and changing in the 21st century. This volume pushes readers to re-evaluate their understanding of the role of parties and partisanship in contemporary politics and offers a helpful set of analyses and tools for understanding the key features of the partisan environment in which the nation finds itself. 

The scholars here approach parties from the standpoint of partisan and social identities, polarization, the prevalence of independents (and pseudo-independents), political campaigns, and more. In linking the different faces or levels—party-in-the-electorate, party-in-government, and party-as-an-organization—the chapters provide a wide-ranging set of theories and ideas to consider. Through this exploration, Reconsidering Parties and Partisanship provides a valuable road map for partisanship in our current era.  

Readers will learn

• How conditional party government seems to work in this highly partisan era
• How donors and pressure groups have taken ownership over campaigns
• How independents are often undercover partisans, but who also feel repelled by the existing parties—even the one they typically support
• How various identities converge to produce partisan affection (when that exists)
• How partisanship relates to ideology.

Christopher F. Karpowitz is Mary Lou Fulton Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University.
Jeremy C. Pope is Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University.