Polarized by Degrees

A comprehensive portrait of the education divide between the parties that now engulfs American institutions and fuels the culture war.

Over the past several decades, American society has experienced fundamental changes - from shifting relations between social groups and evolving language and behavior norms to the increasing value of a college degree. These transformations have polarized the nation's political climate and ignited a perpetual culture war. In a sequel to their award-winning collaboration Asymmetric Politics, Grossmann and Hopkins draw on an extensive variety of evidence to explore how these changes have affected both major parties. They show that the Democrats have become the home of highly-educated citizens with progressive social views who prefer credentialed experts to make policy decisions, while Republicans have become the populist champions of white voters without college degrees who increasingly distrust teachers, scientists, journalists, universities, non-profit organizations, and even corporations. The result of this new "diploma divide" between the parties is an increasingly complex world in which everything is about politics - and politics is about everything.

Autorentext
Matt Grossmann is Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University. He serves as Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center and Contributor to FiveThirtyEight. He is author of six books, including How Social Science Got Better (2021) and Asymmetric Politics (2021). David A. Hopkins is Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston College. He is the author of Red Fighting Blue (2017) and the co-author of Asymmetric Politics (2021) and Presidential Elections. His political analysis has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vox, and Bloomberg Opinion.

Zusammenfassung
Polarized by Degrees explains the growing political divide between Americans with and without a college degree, illustrating how it polarizes our parties and elections, sows conservative distrust of universities, media, scientists, and policy experts, and plunges the nation into daily conflicts over the progressive direction of American culture.

Inhalt
Inspiration and Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction: Changing Parties in a Changing World; 2. How Educated Liberals are Winning the Culture War; 3. 'Hope and Chang'" Meets 'Make America Great Again'; 4. The Rise of the Diploma Divide in American Elections; 5. Trust the Institutions, or Burn Them Down?; 6. Fighting 'Woke Capitalism': The Republican Rebellion Against Corporate America; 7. Are Policymakers Solving Problems or Imposing Values?; 8. Conclusion: Why Everything's About Politics Now, and Politics Is About Everything.