1st Edition

Envisioning America and the American Self Republican and Democratic Party Platforms, 1840-2016

By Scott Appelrouth Copyright 2019
136 Pages
by Routledge

136 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

136 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book explores the Democratic and Republican Party platforms from 1840 to 2016. As the only official, institutionally sanctioned document espousing the parties’ views on the state of the nation, the platforms present to the party faithful a diagnosis of what ails the country and the promise of possessing the necessary cure. In doing so, they offer more than a listing of specific issues in... Read more

Introduction: The State of Politics  1. The Who and Whys of Ideological Polarization  2. The Cultural Grounds of Political Ideology  3. Party Platforms and Topic Modeling   4. Republican Party Platforms: 1856-2016  5. Democratic Party Platforms: 1840-2016  Conclusion: Convergences, Divergences, and Blinkered Visions

Biography

Scott Appelrouth is Professor of Sociology at California State University, USA, and coauthor of Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory, Sociological Theory in the Classical Era, and Sociological Theory in the Contemporary Era.

'…parties’ scholars should appreciate Appelrouth’s study of American party platforms and his selective, informative quotations of passages to describe the parties’ positions. No other book combines such breadth and texture in discussing the platforms of the two major US parties since their founding.'Kenneth Janda, Party Politics