Uncivil Agreement
How Politics Became Our Identity
192 pages
|
43 line drawings, 15 tables
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6 x 9
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© 2018
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments
ONE / Identity-Based Democracy
TWO / Using Old Words in New Ways
THREE / A Brief History of Social Sorting
FOUR / Partisan Prejudice
FIVE / Socially Sorted Parties
SIX / The Outrage and Elation of Partisan Sorting
SEVEN / Activism for the Wrong Reasons
EIGHT / Can We Fix It?
Appendix
Notes
References
Index
ONE / Identity-Based Democracy
TWO / Using Old Words in New Ways
THREE / A Brief History of Social Sorting
FOUR / Partisan Prejudice
FIVE / Socially Sorted Parties
SIX / The Outrage and Elation of Partisan Sorting
SEVEN / Activism for the Wrong Reasons
EIGHT / Can We Fix It?
Appendix
Notes
References
Index
Review Quotes
Ezra Klein | Vox
“One of the most important books this year . . . . This is the kind of research that will change not just how you think about the world but how you think about yourself.”
Yascha Mounk | New Yorker
“Sobering. . . . Mason argues that factors such as class, race, religion, gender, and sexuality used to cut across one another to a significant extent. . . . In the past decades, though, ‘partisan, ideological, religious, and racial identities have moved into strong alignment. . . . A single vote can now indicate a person’s partisan preference as well as his or her religion, race, ethnicity, gender, neighborhood and favorite grocery store.’”
Perry Bacon Jr. | 538
“Highly recommended. . . . In describing American politics today, Mason argues that partisan identity (Democrat or Republican) has become a 'mega-identity' because it increasingly combines a number of different identities. . . . And which party people belong to is important because there is some evidence that instead of people choosing their party affiliation based on their political views (and changing parties if their views are no longer represented by that party), they shift their views to align with their party identity."
New Books Network
“Recent debates about partisan polarization have focused primarily on ideology and policy views. In Uncivil Agreement, social identity moves to the center of how to think about the differences that divide the country.”
David P. Redlawsk, University of Delaware
“Uncivil Agreement opens a window to a better understanding of the 'why' behind the polarization of contemporary American politics. This is a groundbreaking book, combining an interesting and important theoretical approach with strong empirical data, and it will have real impact.”
Richard R. Lau, Rutgers University
“A must-read for anyone trying to understand the increasingly polarized nature of American politics. Mason offers a psychological identity-based explanation for today’s polarized politics, an explanation that provides insights both into its most important attitudinal and behavioral consequences, but also into possible approaches that could help move the American public a few steps back from the precipice.”
Nicholas Valentino, University of Michigan
“The mutual disdain felt by Democrats and Republicans around the country has reached toxic levels, and it is having profound consequences for the quality of our policies, not just our politics. How did we get here? Mason’s brilliantly designed research and compelling writing reveal the most convincing explanation to date.”
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