Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Partisan Polarization, Social Identity, And Deliberative Democracy In The United States, Ryan Strickler

Theses and Dissertations

As of late, political theory, research, and practice have taken a deliberative turn, extolling the benefits of public discourse guided by norms such as inclusion, respect, and open-mindedness. Can these ideals, though, be approximated in the current era of partisan polarization? If so, what factors contribute to high quality, productive discourse?

These are the questions this project addresses, assessing how partisanship and polarization impact the public’s propensity to adopt the key deliberative attitude of reciprocity (or mutual respect) towards political argumentation. Drawing on social identity theory, the project conceptualizes partisan attachment as containing interrelated, yet separate ideological and social identity …

The Economic Foundations Of Authoritarian Rule, Clay Robert Fuller

Theses and Dissertations

Personal ambition and the distribution of economic goods often determine the character of politics. This dynamic plays out dramatically in authoritarian states where there are few independent arbiters outside of political violence. All dictatorships face two paramount problems in maintaining their tenure. First, to maintain power and distribute goods dictators must devise ways in which to manage a ruling coalition in the absence of explicit power-sharing institutions. Second, authoritarian regimes must devise ways to manage the desires of a population ruled with only implicit consent. This dissertation empirically treats the management style of authoritarian leaders as exogenous to the institutional …