Symptoms and Diagnosis In order to diagnose the root cause it is important to begin by looking at the symptoms present. In recent years there has been a focus in popular political science of editorials, blogs, and campaigns to talk about certain simple problems. As stated earlier, I believe that while potentially worrying, that these are not the problem in and of themselves, merely being symptoms of a greater dysfunction in the system. The symptoms I will discuss are political polarization, low voter turnout, and perceived lack of fairness. The first of these has been recently quite popular to blame. Polarization has take center stage in casual political discourse as well as been a focus in literature. Abramowitz (2011) has a large body
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Their research indicated that many American voters today align less with the party they support and more against the opposing parties, which they referred to as negative partisanship. Abramowitz also indicated that negative partisanship leads to straight ticket voting which increases the polarization and removes moderates from office (Abramowitz 2016). This result increases the divide between the voters who are engaged and those who are not, leading to fewer informed and virtuous citizens. Straight ticket voting is dangerous as citizens are less diligent, do not know what candidates stand for, nor do they actually get representation that is good for the average …show more content…
Both classical liberals and republicans would take issue with this. Classical liberals would find this disturbing as it can potentially limit individuals expression when voting as their preferences are not always represented. On the classical republican side, it is an issue because as voters become more alienated, they fail to do their duty and become less virtuous citizens. As Callander & Wilson (2007) showed this alienation and polarization may be linked to the voting system we use, which is a plurality rule system. As they noted Duverger's Law suggests that the only result in a plurality single member district system is two ideologically opposite parties. Distinct parties at such ideological impas means that the spread of alignment is represented as a binary choice which results in one extreme or the other, despite the median voter being the most distant from the result (Callander & Wilson
Their research indicated that many American voters today align less with the party they support and more against the opposing parties, which they referred to as negative partisanship. Abramowitz also indicated that negative partisanship leads to straight ticket voting which increases the polarization and removes moderates from office (Abramowitz 2016). This result increases the divide between the voters who are engaged and those who are not, leading to fewer informed and virtuous citizens. Straight ticket voting is dangerous as citizens are less diligent, do not know what candidates stand for, nor do they actually get representation that is good for the average …show more content…
Both classical liberals and republicans would take issue with this. Classical liberals would find this disturbing as it can potentially limit individuals expression when voting as their preferences are not always represented. On the classical republican side, it is an issue because as voters become more alienated, they fail to do their duty and become less virtuous citizens. As Callander & Wilson (2007) showed this alienation and polarization may be linked to the voting system we use, which is a plurality rule system. As they noted Duverger's Law suggests that the only result in a plurality single member district system is two ideologically opposite parties. Distinct parties at such ideological impas means that the spread of alignment is represented as a binary choice which results in one extreme or the other, despite the median voter being the most distant from the result (Callander & Wilson