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The Rise and Fall of Nasty Politics in America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

Daniel M. Shea  and
Alex Sproveri
Daniel M. Shea
Affiliation:
Colby College
Alex Sproveri
Affiliation:
Allegheny College
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Extract

It is fair to say that a great swath of forest was sacrificed for the study of negative campaigning. As we might hope and expect, a great deal has been learned since our initial assumptions that negative ads would be the downfall of our republic. (For an excellent review of this literature, see Geer 2006). This PS symposium and a spate of recent work (for example, see Herbst 2010; Shea and Fiorina 2012; Sobieraj and Berry 2011), suggest growing interest in a somewhat different form of negativity: the tone of political discourse, or what we might call levels of civility in politics. Much of this work has centered on the impact of nasty politics on individuals (Forgette and Morris 2006; Mutz 2007; Mutz and Reeves 2005; Fridkin and Kenney 2008). Might vitriol turn off citizens and lead to increased levels of distrust and cynicism?

Type
Symposium
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , July 2012 , pp. 416 - 421
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2012

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