The Promise of Party in a Polarized Age

by Russell Muirhead

At the root of America’s broken politics is hyperbolic partisanship. It distorts perceptions, inflames disagreements, and poisons the democratic process. Citizens pine for a time when liberals and conservatives compromised with one another―or they yearn for a post-partisan future when the common good trumps ideology and self-interest. Russell Muirhead argues that better partisanship, not less partisanship, is the solution to America’s political predicament. Instead of striving to overcome our differences, we should learn how to engage them.

The political conflicts that provide fodder for cable news shows are not simply manufactured from thin air. However sensationalized they become in the retelling, they originate in authentic disagreements over what constitutes the common welfare. Republicans vest responsibility in each citizen for dealing with bad decisions and bad luck, and want every individual and family to enjoy the benefits of good decisions and good luck. Democrats ask citizens to stand together to insure one another against the worst consequences of misfortune or poor judgment, and especially to insure children against some of the consequences of their parents’ bad decisions or lack of opportunities. These are fundamental differences that fantasies of bipartisan consensus cannot dissolve.

Disagreement without parties is disempowering, Muirhead says. The remedy is not for citizens and elected officials to learn to “just get along” but for them to bring a skeptical sensibility even to their own convictions, and to learn to disagree as partisans and govern through compromise despite those disagreements.

Genres: Politics

336 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

Russell Muirhead is the Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College and the author of The Promise of Party in a Polarized Age and Just Work. He lives in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Reviews

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good defense of the need for parties in representative democracies. Of course it is not unslanted (when conservatives refuse to compromise, it's stubbornness; when liberals, principle). The best chapters dealt with why closed primaries are probably preferable, and with why the president must be both partisan and non-partisan. This book was recommended by Jay Cost, the best politico writing today, and I think most junkies would appreciate it. The work gets into much political theory without being dry. His discussion of the main, broad goals of the GOP and Democrat Party makes one realize that conservatives are always on the defensive. If change/entropy is natural, than to conserve is, perhaps, a fool's errand, yet absolutely necessary.