The Other Divide
Abstract
There is little doubt that increasing polarization over the last decade has transformed the American political landscape. In The Other Divide, Yanna Krupnikov and John Barry Ryan challenge the nature and extent of that polarization. They find that more than party, Americans are divided by involvement in politics. On one side is a group of Americans who are deeply involved in politics and very expressive about their political views; on the other side is a group much less involved in day-to-day political outcomes. While scholars and journalists have assumed that those who are most vocal about their political views are representative of America at large, they are in fact a relatively small group whose voices are amplified by the media. By considering the political differences between the deeply involved and the rest of the American public, Krupnikov and Ryan present a broader picture of the American electorate than the one that often appears in the news.
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Trafficking in hatred and the politics of provocation and backlash breeds political disengagement, placing the fate of democracy in the hands of a small, non-representative subset of citizens.
“The latter style breeds political disengagement244, placing the fate of democracy in the hands of a small, non-representative subset of citizens.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [244]
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Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Krupnikov, Y., & Ryan, J. B.
- Affiliations
- Stony Brook University (US)
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 2022-01-19
- OpenAlex
- W4205148905
- Cited by
- 175
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 75 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 9 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 44.43
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Theory and Democracy
- Keywords
- political polarization, political participation, media amplification, American electorate, political representation, partisanship
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