Cambridge University Press Democratic Resilience: Can the United States Withstand Rising Polarization?

Politics in the United States has become increasingly polarized in recent decades. Both political elites and everyday citizens are divided into rival and mutually antagonistic partisan camps, with each camp questioning the political legitimacy and democratic commitments of the other side. Does this polarization pose threats to democracy itself? What can make some democratic institutions resilient in the face of such challenges? Democratic Resilience brings together a distinguished group of specialists to examine how polarization affects the performance of institutional checks and balances as well as the political behavior of voters, civil society actors, and political elites. The volume bridges the conventional divide between institutional and behavioral approaches to the study of American politics and incorporates historical and comparative insights to explain the nature of contemporary challenges to democracy. It also breaks new ground to identify the institutional and societal sources of democratic resilience. Book Description This book examines how polarization threatens democracy and the sources of political and institutional resilience that can help sustain it. About the Author Robert C. Lieberman is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He is a scholar of American political development, race and politics, public policy, and democracy and the author of several prize-winning books, including Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy (2020), co-authored with Suzanne Mettler.Suzanne Mettler is the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions in the Government Department at Cornell University. Her research and teaching interests include American political development, inequality, public policy, political behavior, and democracy. She is the author of six books, including Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy (2020), co-authored with Robert C. Lieberman.Kenneth M. Roberts is the Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government at Cornell University. His research explores democratic representation and its defects, including the study of parties, populism and social movements from a comparative perspective. He is the author of Changing Course in Latin America: Party Systems in the Neoliberal Era.