Political Volatility in the United States

Baodong Liu

doi:10.5771/9781793651297

Summary

The unexpected shift from the election of Barack Obama and the post-racial hope to the racial confrontations in the Trump era begs the question: Why did such a big volatile swing happen in such a short period of time? Uncertainty reigns in volatile political times. This book aims to provide a systemic model for understanding how political volatility throughout the U.S. history has had its root in two competing racial and religious groupings. Moreover, the groupings grounded in white supremacy and egalitarianism have collided, contested, and facilitated the configuration and reconfiguration of the atomic political structure. As demonstrated in this book, the antagonism between the two competing identity groupings led to a history of political volatility in the United States. Contrary to the endless “political deadlocks” suggested by the scholars of American political development, this book explains how and why the two orders persist, reach peaks of volatility, and why one temporarily achieves prominence over the other. Going beyond the simplistic view of racial and religious hierarchy, this book provides an account rooted in structural tensions, strategic imperatives, opportunities, and threats on collective actions.

Keywords

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-7936-5128-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-7936-5129-7
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 232
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. List of Figures and Tables No access
4. 1. Figures No access
  2. Tables No access
5. Acknowledgments No access
1. Political Volatility No access
2. Chapter Outline No access
3. The Importance of Differences between Groups and Within One Group No access
1. 1. The Chosen One No access
2. 1. ADVICE: The Atomic Structure and its Operating Principles No access
  2. A Deeper Look at Romney’s Religion No access
  3. Political Volatility beyond the Racial and Religious Minorities No access
3. 1. Rationality and its Limits No access
  2. Political Decision Based on Perception and Habit No access
  3. Voting and Information Search No access
  4. Threat and Information Search No access
  5. Perception of Threat and Biology No access
  6. Conclusion No access
4. 1. Otherness as the Source of Multiple Threats No access
  2. In-group Favoritism No access
  3. Out-group Hostility No access
5. 1. WASPs and the Problem of Multiple Groups No access
  2. Group Similarities and WASP Perceptions of Multiple Threats No access
  3. Conclusion No access
6. 1. German Protestant Experience No access
  2. Black Experience No access
  3. White Catholic Experience No access
  4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints No access
7. 1. Response Range and Measures of Aggression No access
  2. Aggression: Measures on Seven Levels No access
  3. Conclusion No access
8. 1. Trail of Tears No access
  2. Abstract Threat and Concrete Threat Revisited No access
  3. Dualism in U.S. Politics No access
  4. The Atomic Structure in American Politics No access
1. 1. Dominant Core in a Political System No access
  2. Competing Views on the End of WASP Domination No access
2. 1. The Relationship between the Core and Peripheries No access
  2. The Relationship between the Two Political Coalitions No access
  3. The Relationship between the Peripheries No access
  4. Assimilation of White Catholics to the Core No access
  5. Conclusion No access
3. 1. Whites as a Group No access
  2. Race and Political Parties in Contemporary Elections No access
  3. Migration, Demographic Change, and Minority Political Power No access
  4. White Group Influence in American Electoral Politics No access
  5. Group Influences in the Legislative Arena No access
  6. Conclusion No access
4. 1. The Minority Candidates No access
  2. Theories and Hypotheses: Solving the Chapter 1 Puzzle No access
  3. Data and Method No access
  4. Findings on the 2012 GOP Primaries No access
  5. The 2012 General Election No access
  6. Conclusion No access
5. 1. Finding the “Right” Strategy to Win the White Vote No access
  2. The Threat Environment behind the Rise of Trump No access
  3. The Reordering of Multiple Threats in the Trump Era No access
  4. Anti-Immigration Public Opinion and Public Policy No access
  5. A Statistical Analysis of Anti-Immigration Public Opinion No access
  6. The Effect of the Atomic Structure on the 2016 Presidential Election No access
  7. Conclusion No access
1. Solving the Political Puzzles No access
2. The Atomic Structure Is Not a Hierarchical /Caste System No access
3. Volatility and Political Progress No access
Bibliography No access Pages 209 - 222
Index No access Pages 223 - 230
About the Author No access Pages 231 - 232