Graduation Term
2021
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Department of Politics and Government: Political Science
Committee Chair
Austin L Crothers
Abstract
This thesis examines Democratic and Republican party platforms over the 1980-2016 period in a content analysis to test claims of partisanship increasing on identity lines in American politics. As a key issue facing democracies in recent years, polarization has coincided with challenges for democratic governance. Cases of ‘pernicious’ polarization that extend partisan rifts into social life, and especially those that feature an ‘existential’ or ‘formative rift' dynamic as in the US case, may be prone to intractable partisan conflict and politics amenable to democratic erosion. The tensions may also create space for democracy enhancements. The findings of the content analysis offer support for increasing partisan-identity polarization in American politics in recent decades. Republican party platforms seem to increasingly reproduce a historical majoritarian appeal on religious-cultural or ethnic identity lines, in contrast to Democratic party platforms that likewise increasingly contest the meaning of ‘American’ in more identitarian albeit inclusive in a multicultural sense of community and belonging.
Access Type
Thesis-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Mullins, Nicholas Alan, "Deepening Partisan-Identity Polarization in the Us: a Content Analysis of Major Party Platforms, 1980-2016" (2021). Theses and Dissertations. 1498.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/1498
DOI
https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2021.20220215070318048730.999983