HERTOG 2019 SUMMER COURSES PARTISANSHIP IN AMERICAN POLITICS Daniel DiSalvo, professor, City University of New York-City College

If there is one thing about politics that unites Americans these days, it is their contempt for political parties and partisanship. More Americans today identify as independents than with either of the two major political parties. Party leaders in Congress are held in disrepute, criticized by one side for being too soft and condemned by the other for being too extreme. The partisan coalitions that defined the Democratic and Republican parties for decades seem to be breaking apart, as insurgent, “outsider” politicians— like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders — continue to rise.

Yet while both major parties are less popular than at any time in recent history, partisan antipathy has only intensified. Party affiliation is now a bigger wedge between Americans than race, gender, religion, or level of education.

What is the origin of this bitter and seemingly irreconcilable divide? Is there an ideal level of party difference? How much is too much? In this one-week seminar, students will examine the roots of partisanship and its implications for our national politics.

Monday, July 29, 2019

9:00 a.m. to Noon American Parties

Readings: • , excerpt from “Thoughts on the Present Discontents” • Russell Muirhead, “A Defense of Party Spirit,” Perspectives on Politics 4:4 (2006) • A. James Reichley, Ch. 2, The Life of the Parties (2000) • Frances McCall Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro, Chs. 1–2, Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself (2019) • Edward C. Banfield, Ch. 4, Here the People Rule (1991) • Morris P. Fiorina, “Gridlock is Bad. The Alternative is Worse,” The Washington Post, February 25, 2014

Questions: 1. What are parties? 2. Is partisanship a good thing? Is being a partisan defensible? 3. What were the American Founders’ objections to political parties? 4. What is the ideal or best party system? 5. By what criteria should we judge party systems?

12:15 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Group Lunch & Guest Speaker: Jay Cost, visiting fellow, AEI

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Tuesday, July 30, 2019

9:00 a.m. to Noon Party Reform

Readings: • James W. Ceaser, “Political Parties and Presidential Ambition,” Journal of Politics 40 (1978) • Edward C. Banfield, Ch. 5, Here the People Rule (1991) • Jonathan Rauch, “How American Politics Went Insane,” The Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2016

Questions: 1. What are the different models of parties that have been proposed in American politics since the Founding? 2. Can political parties be made to serve the Founders’ objectives—at least in terms of presidential selection? 3. What have been the consequences of the “democratizing” or “decentralizing” reforms of the 1970s?

Noon to 1:30 p.m. Lunch Break

1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Guest Speaker: Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow,

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

9:00 a.m. to Noon Party Polarization & Government

Readings: • Michael Barber and Nolan McCarty, “Causes and Consequences of Polarization,” Solutions to Polarization in America, ed. Nathaniel Persily (2015) • James M. Curry and Frances E. Lee, “Non-Party Government: Bipartisan Lawmaking and Party Power in Congress,” Perspectives on Politics 17 (2019) • Frances E. Lee, “How Party Polarization Affects Governance,” Annual Review of Political Science 18 (2015) • Pietro S. Nivola, “Partisanship in Perspective,” National Affairs (Fall 2010)

Questions: 1. What are the causes of party polarization? 2. Has polarization resulted in policies favoring one party or the other? 3. What is the character of party discipline in Congress? 4. Is party polarization all bad? Can a polarized party system be healthy?

Noon to 1:00 p.m. Lunch Break

1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Guest Speaker: James Wallner, senior fellow, R Street

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Thursday, August 1, 2019

9:00 a.m. to Noon Party Polarization & the Public

Readings: • “Political Polarization in the American Public,” Pew Research Center (2014) • Alan I. Abramowitz and Steven W. Webster, “Negative Partisanship: Why Americans Dislike Parties but Behave like Rabid Partisans,” Advances in Political Psychology 39 (2018) • Morris P. Fiorina, “The Political Parties Have Sorted,” Hoover Institution, September 2016 • Douglas J. Ahler, “The Group Theory of Parties: Identity Politics, Party Stereotypes, and Polarization in the 21st Century,” The Forum 16:1 (April 2018) • Rishabh Bhandari and Thomas Hopson, “Strangled by Identity,” National Affairs (Winter 2018)

Questions: 1. What is party identification and why is it important? 2. Is the American public polarized or do most voters remain political moderates? 3. How, if at all, are party and personal identity related?

Noon to 1:00 p.m. Lunch Break

1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Guest Speaker: Henry Olsen, senior fellow, EPPC

Friday, August 2, 2019

9:00 a.m. to Noon Fixing Our Parties

Readings: • Raymond J. La Raja, “Campaign Finance and Partisan Polarization in the United States Congress,” Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy 9:1 (2014) • Jeffrey H. Anderson and Jay Cost, “A Republican Nomination Process,” National Affairs (Summer 2013) • Henry Olsen and Thomas B. Edsall, “Can the Parties Survive?” City Journal (Autumn 2017)

Questions: 1. How might changing campaign finance law reduce polarization? 2. What steps might improve the presidential nomination process? 3. What challenges do the parties face to secure their bases and expand their coalitions?

12:15pm to 2:00 p.m. Group Lunch & Closing Conversation Guest Speaker: Kristen Soltis Anderson, Echelon Insights

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Instructor and Speaker Bios

Instructor

Daniel DiSalvo is associate professor and chair of Political Science in the Colin Powell School at the City College of New York–CUNY and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. His scholarship focuses on American political parties, elections, labor unions, state government, and public policy. He is the author of Engines of Change: Party Factions in American Politics, 1868–2010 and Government Against Itself: Public Union Power and Its Consequences. DiSalvo writes frequently for scholarly and popular publications, including , The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, National Affairs, and City Journal. He is coeditor of The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics.

Speakers

Kristen Soltis Anderson is co-founder of Echelon Insights and has over a decade of experience in the public opinion research industry. She is the is author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up) and is at the forefront of research into the views of the millennial generation. Anderson was named one of ELLE Magazine’s “Most Compelling Women in Washington” in 2016 and was previously named one of TIME Magazine’s “30 Under 30 Changing The World.”

Jay Cost is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on elections, politics, and public opinion. Dr. Cost’s interests are broadly focused on civic republicanism in the United States, with emphases on the political theory of , the problem of political corruption, the role of political parties, the development of civic institutions over time, and the power and responsibility of Congress. He writes and speaks frequently on American elections, with a special attention on placing contemporary trends in historical context. His books include The Price of Greatness: James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the Creation of American Oligarchy and A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of Political Corruption.

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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how to address the electoral challenges facing modern American conservatism. This work is the basis of his book The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue- Collar Conservatism. He is also an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, where he writes daily pieces focusing on politics, populism, foreign affairs, and American conservative thought. Mr. Olsen has worked in senior executive positions at many center-right think tanks.

Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of six books and many articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing editor of The Atlantic and recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. His many Brookings publications include the 2015 ebook Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy, as well as research on political parties, marijuana legalization, health care, and more.

James Wallner is a senior fellow at the R Street Institute. He joined R Street from the Heritage Foundation, where he was group vice president for research. Earlier in his career, he was executive director of the Senate Steering Committee during the chairmanships of Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah). He also has served as legislative director to Toomey and to former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala). He is the author of two books: The Death of Deliberation: Partisanship and Polarization in the United States Senate (2013) and On Parliamentary War: Partisan Conflict and Procedural Change in the United States Senate (2017).

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