Matthew Lvendusky’s book The Partisan Sort tackles many issues which are at the heart of the political party system which is present in this day and age. Issues that mainly deal with the political party one aligns his or herself with and what factors into this decision and course of action. In addition to this he explains why and how an individual may take a strong or weak stance on issues which are ever present in and related to whichever political party is chosen. These concepts are known by many as “polarization” and “sorting.” Sorting may be the lesser known of the two as it is somewhat of an obscure topic and has been known to be confused with polarization. In his book Levendusky explains the two concepts and the factors which set them
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What conclusion does he arrive at? Political elites and the polarization between parties which they exhibit. The definition that Levendusky uses to describes these elites as “those who hold elected offices” and goes into detail about how these elites give off “cues” which may help lead to individuals taking up the positions of a certain party. This is, in essence, the sorting process, which can occur due to any number of issues present and usually results with an individual “moving their partisanship into alignment with their ideology” or vice versa. Once someone is “sorted” they begin to exhibit more partisan behavior, whereas they may have been more bi-partisan before. This change in behavior has a bevy of consequences, such as, more political participation due to a heightened interest in politics, which is a result of a newfound partisanship. Another consequence is a shift of focus from swing votes onto a campaign’s targeted base. Despite these changes Levendusky does not find a substantial correlation between the increase in sorting and polarization and uses data gathered from the NES to back up his conclusion. In this conclusion, he finds that sorting can; increase the probability that an individual will vote for their party’s candidate, like their party more, and bring their stances on issues more in line with the views of their
What conclusion does he arrive at? Political elites and the polarization between parties which they exhibit. The definition that Levendusky uses to describes these elites as “those who hold elected offices” and goes into detail about how these elites give off “cues” which may help lead to individuals taking up the positions of a certain party. This is, in essence, the sorting process, which can occur due to any number of issues present and usually results with an individual “moving their partisanship into alignment with their ideology” or vice versa. Once someone is “sorted” they begin to exhibit more partisan behavior, whereas they may have been more bi-partisan before. This change in behavior has a bevy of consequences, such as, more political participation due to a heightened interest in politics, which is a result of a newfound partisanship. Another consequence is a shift of focus from swing votes onto a campaign’s targeted base. Despite these changes Levendusky does not find a substantial correlation between the increase in sorting and polarization and uses data gathered from the NES to back up his conclusion. In this conclusion, he finds that sorting can; increase the probability that an individual will vote for their party’s candidate, like their party more, and bring their stances on issues more in line with the views of their