Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

The U.S. Political Scene: An Era of Unstable Majorities Continues

Seminario con Morris Fiorina, Stanford University

Organizzato da Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società - Laboratorio di Analisi Sociologica “Nicola Negri” e corso di laurea in Sociologia

3 maggio 2023 ore 13.30
Torino, CLE, Aula 3D233

The United States is currently experiencing historically unprecedented electoral instability with control of national institutions switching frequently between the Republicans and Democrats. A significant part of the explanation is that the two major parties have transformed away from the “catch all parties” characteristic of single-member district electoral systems that existed for most of American history into the kind of ideological parties more common in multi-party systems. The contemporary parties represent the interests of their core cadres at the expense of representing the larger public, resulting in an electorate that repeatedly rejects the attempts of temporary majorities to impose their platforms on the country. As of spring 2023, this pattern of instability appears more likely than not to continue.