Politics and Social Change Workshop/Transnational Studies Initiative Joint presentation by Josh Pascewicz, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies, Brown University.

Discussant:

Jocelyn Viterna, Faculty Associate. Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Harvard University.

Chairs:

Peggy Levitt, Associate. Chair; Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Wellesley College.

Jocelyn Viterna, Faculty Associate. Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Harvard University.

Abstract:

Since the 1970s, American political parties and voters have diverged: politicians and party leaders have grown more polarized, while voters’ ambivalence towards the two parties and preferences for outside-the-beltway candidates has increased. This book explains this divergence by examining connections between urban and partisan politics, focusing especially on grassroots community leaders’ relationship with the two parties. Drawing on a comparative ethnographic community study of two rust belt cities in Iowa during the 2008 and 2012 election cycle, the book shows how Keynesian-era regulations created factions in urban politics and led community leaders to see partisan engagement as part of their public personae. After the 1980s, neoliberal federal reforms re-oriented community governance around broad-based partnerships, which community leaders see as inconsistent with partisan engagement. The book argues that community leaders’ withdrawal from grassroots parties empowers ideologically-motivated activists, thus polarizing America’s political class and setting into motion dynamics like the Tea Party and 2010s-era populist campaigns.

For a copy of the paper, please contact:

John Arroyo

TSI Project Manager

arroyojc@mit.edu