Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Chris Ellis and Joseph Ura deliver an incisive analysis of the changing nature of American presidential elections over the last half-century. They argue that growing partisan polarization has redefined voting behavior, reducing the influence of national economic performance and policies on electoral choices and transforming elections into moralized contests dominated by entrenched “us vs. them” dynamics.
Employing historical data, novel surveys, and an innovative forecasting model, the authors examine the interplay between political psychology and voting behavior, arguing that modern partisanship has evolved into a core social identity, akin to sports fandom. This development has led to unprecedented electoral stability on the one hand and heightened potential for deep conflict on the other.
Rigorously researched yet accessible, this text offers a vital perspective on how electoral strategies, public expectations, and democratic norms are being reshaped in today’s polarized context.
Chris Ellis is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Survey Research Laboratory at Bucknell University. He writes broadly on public opinion and representation in the United States, exploring how public attitudes toward social welfare spending, higher education, tax policy, and more get enacted by governments in public policy. He is the author of three books on American public opinion, and his work has been published in the Journal of Politics, American Politics Research, Policy Studies Journal, Political Behavior, and many other outlets.
Ellis earned his PhD in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and BA from Bucknell University.
Joseph Daniel Ura is Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Clemson University. His research explores how Americans understand and engage with their political institutions. Ura’s recent work asks how courts earn and lose public support, how partisan polarization affects national elections, and how changes in public opinion feed back into government and policymaking processes. His scholarship has appeared in leading journals and law reviews, including the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and the George Mason Law Review.
Ura earned his PhD in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his MA and BA, both in political science, from George Washington University. Before joining Clemson, he held faculty positions at Texas A&M University and Louisiana State University.