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Matthew Levendusky
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The Partisan Sort: How Liberals Became Democrats and Conservatives Became Republicans (Chicago Studies in American Politics) Illustrated Edition, Kindle Edition

by Matthew Levendusky (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
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As Washington elites drifted toward ideological poles over the past few decades, did ordinary Americans follow their lead? In The Partisan Sort, Matthew Levendusky reveals that we have responded to this trend—but not, for the most part, by becoming more extreme ourselves. While polarization has filtered down to a small minority of voters, it also has had the more significant effect of reconfiguring the way we sort ourselves into political parties.


In a marked realignment since the 1970s—when partisan affiliation did not depend on ideology and both major parties had strong liberal and conservative factions—liberals today overwhelmingly identify with Democrats, as conservatives do with Republicans. This “sorting,” Levendusky contends, results directly from the increasingly polarized terms in which political leaders define their parties. Exploring its far-reaching implications for the American political landscape, he demonstrates that sorting makes voters more loyally partisan, allowing campaigns to focus more attention on mobilizing committed supporters. Ultimately, Levendusky concludes, this new link between party and ideology represents a sea change in American politics.

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  1. ISBN-13
    978-0226473659
  2. Edition
    Illustrated
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    University of Chicago Press
  5. Publication date
    December 15, 2009
  6. Part of series
    Chicago Studies in American Politics
  7. Language
    English
  8. File size
    7058 KB
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“An excellent book, one I would recommend to scholars of American public opinion as well as those who follow American electoral politics closely.”

-- Marc J. Hetherington ― Public Opinion Quarterly

About the Author

Matthew Levendusky is professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also holds the Stephen and Mary Baran Chair in the Institutions of Democracy at the Annenberg Public Policy Center. His books include The Partisan Sort and How Partisan Media Polarize America. He is also the coauthor of We Need to Talk (with Dominik Stecula) and Democracy Amid Crises (Annenberg IOD Collaborative). 

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003C31OHK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; Illustrated edition (December 15, 2009)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 15, 2009
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 7058 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 182 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0226473651
  • Customer Reviews:

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Matthew Levendusky

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Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
8 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kyle L
4.0 out of 5 stars Examines how polarization/sorting actually works
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2016
Verified Purchase
While it's certainly not for everyone (some basic knowledge of statistics is necessary), I think it's incredibly unfair to call this "drivel" if you've actually read this book. Levendusky does a great job of setting up what eventually becomes the main point of his book. He wants to dig much deeper into the assumptions of sorting research, in order to determine the specific causal link between elite polarization and sorting. In other words, does elite polarization cause sorting, or does sorting cause elite polarization? His results support the idea that elite polarization causes sorting.

Once this baseline assumption is confirmed, Levendusky moves on to the question of how sorting occurs, and whether voters change their beliefs to fit their party (called party-driven sorting) or whether citizens’ ideological beliefs are so strong that they change their party affiliation as a result (ideology-driven sorting). He eventually finds that sorting as a whole is more party-driven and that even highly educated voters are no more likely to sort ideologically. The end of the book includes some thoughts about what this actually means for American democracy.

This is probably not the best book to start off with if you just have a general interest in political polarization. Morris Fiorina's "Culture War?" book is a better starting point, although I don't agree with all of his conclusions. However, if you have a basic understanding of polarization and sorting, this is a great read.
9 people found this helpful
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Mojo
4.0 out of 5 stars A clear and well researched explaination of a polarized America
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2011
Verified Purchase
An excellent description of how the US went from centrist politics to polarized politics. It describes the historical changes, and the mechanism of the cause--that political elites have become polarized. Once the elites polarized, the electorate followed. There are many interesting observations about voter behaviour, such as how people tend to pick a party and then change their ideology--their stand on issues, to match the party line.

This book is well written and extremely well researched and documented. The reason I gave it only 4 stars is because it didn't get at what I consider the underlying cause, that is why elites themselves have polarized. Clearly this is due to the increasing influence of interest groups. There was little if any mention of interest groups. My other gripe is ideology was treated as a coherent choice between liberal and conservative when in fact they, like parties, are groups of issues that don't necessary go together, except in a world where everything has to be simplified to sound bites.

Nevertheless, I HIGHLY recommend it.
24 people found this helpful
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Robert B
2.0 out of 5 stars Book title was misleading to me
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2012
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I have not read the book in its entirety, rather I put it down after two chapters. I was hoping to get a book that described in a historical fashion the manner in which there were liberal republicans and more conservative democrats as recently as the 70's and an account of why this happened, who were the key individuals and processes involved, and what the time scale of the almost perfect sorting. Instead, the book seemed to me be a more theoretical political scientific account of the psychological processes that people go through when their own political thinking does not conform to the thinking of their party leaders, etc. Maybe if I read past the first two chapters, but that was not my impression from scanning the rest of the book and reading the table of contents more closely.
9 people found this helpful
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E Neel
1.0 out of 5 stars Not Even close
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2015
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Typical Academic Drivel. No meaning except some poor schmuck in a PhD program thought he was smart by looking at modern America and thought he knew what Democracy is, it is getting quite concerning that people keep stating US is an "Democracy". They need to read Polybius, Cicero, etc for starters before they continue publishing this style of dishonest writing.
5 people found this helpful
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