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Reframing Polarization: Social Groups and “Culture Wars”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2014

Christopher P. Muste
Christopher P. Muste*
Affiliation:
University of Montana
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Abstract

Recent analyses of American politics often invoke the term “culture war” depicting sharp and increasing divisions within the American polity. Most of this research defines culture in terms of values and beliefs about social issues and defines polarization in terms of partisan and issue divisions. I evaluate the claim of worsening “culture wars” by using a conceptualization of political culture that focuses on social groups and measuring polarization as both social group members’ attitudes toward their own social in-groups and out-groups, and the effects of group attitudes on partisanship. Analyzing inter-group attitudes from 1964 to 2012 for social group cleavages defined by race, class, age, sex, and religion shows that polarization in attitudes toward social groups is minimal and generally stable, and most group members feel positively toward out-groups. Partisan and issue polarization seen in prior research do not extend to deep or increasing inter-group hostility that could reinforce issue-based and partisan polarization.

Type
Features
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 432 - 442
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2014 

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