Myths and Realities of American Political Geography
Open accessAbstract
The division of America into red states and blue states misleadingly suggests that states are split into two camps, but along most dimensions, like political orientation, states are on a continuum.By historical standards, the number of swing states is not particularly low, and America's cultural divisions are not increasing.But despite the flaws of the red state/blue state framework, it does contain two profound truths.First, the heterogeneity of beliefs and attitudes across the United States is enormous and has always been so.Second, political divisions are becoming increasingly religious and cultural.The rise of religious politics is not without precedent, but rather returns us to the pre-New Deal norm.Religious political divisions are so common because religious groups provide politicians the opportunity to send targeted messages that excite their base.
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Traditional models based on constructive opinion dynamics predict that unrestricted interaction would eventually lead to consensus, even on controversial issues.
“Within the traditional models based on constructive opinion dynamics [5], such unrestricted modes of interaction would eventually lead to a consensus, even on controversial issues.”
From Modeling echo chambers and polarization dynamics in social networks (2020) · cites this paper as [5]
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Modeling echo chambers and polarization dynamics in social networks
Baumann, F., Lorenz-Spreen, P., Sokolov, I. M., & Starnini, M. (2020) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.124.048301 · Cited by 427 · see citing works
- Authors
- Glaeser, E., & Ward, B.
- Affiliations
- National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
- ORCID
- Glaeser, Edward
- Venue
- National Bureau of Economic Research
- Publisher
- National Bureau of Economic Research
- Published
- 2005-12
- OpenAlex
- W3123495964
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2022: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2013: 1
- Type
- report
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- National Bureau of Economic Research (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religion and Society Interactions
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › American Constitutional Law and Politics
- Keywords
- swing states, political polarization, religious politics, cultural divide, political attitudes, American politics, New Deal era
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