Compromise in an Age of Party Polarization

Jennifer Wolak

Investigates Americans' support of political compromise and how people balance partisan desires against principled thinking about democratic norms
Utilizes a multi-method approach that combines survey evidence and numerous innovative survey experiments
Challenges conventional wisdom about the partisan demands of the electorate
Highlights the complexity of how people reason about how government should proceed in times of political division
Covers the bounds and extent of public support for compromise in-depth and with greater detail than any prior accounts

Compromise in an Age of Party Polarization

Jennifer Wolak

Description

Congressional debates are increasingly defined by gridlock and stalemate, with partisan showdowns that lead to government shutdowns. Compromise in Congress seems hard to reach, but do politicians deserve all the blame? Legislators who refuse to compromise might be doing just what their constituents want them to do. In Compromise in an Age of Party Polarization, Jennifer Wolak challenges this wisdom and demonstrates that Americans value compromise in politics. Citizens want more from elected officials than just ideological representation--they also care about the processes by which disagreements are settled. Using evidence from a variety of surveys and innovative experiments, she shows the persistence of people's support for compromise across a range of settings-even when it comes at the cost of partisan goals and policy objectives. While polarization levels are high in contemporary America, our partisan demands are checked by our principled views of how we believe politics should be practiced. By underscoring this basic yet mostly ignored fact, this book stands as an important first step toward trying to reduce the extreme polarization that plagues our politics.

Compromise in an Age of Party Polarization

Jennifer Wolak

Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: The Challenges of Compromise
Chapter 2: Public Support for Political Compromise
Chapter 3: Compromise as a Democratic Value
Chapter 4: The Bounds of Public Support for Compromise
Chapter 5: Partisan Motives and Consideration of Compromise
Chapter 6: Campaigns, Competition, and Support for Political Compromise
Chapter 7: Policymaking, Procedural Justice, and Support for Compromise
Chapter 8: Do People Want Members of Congress to Compromise?
Chapter 9: Support for Compromise in Principle and in Practice
Chapter 10: Conclusions
References
Index

Compromise in an Age of Party Polarization

Jennifer Wolak

Author Information

Jennifer Wolak is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She studies political behavior in the United States, with a particular focus on political psychology, public opinion, state politics, and gender.

Compromise in an Age of Party Polarization

Jennifer Wolak

Reviews and Awards

"A willingness to compromise might be THE topic for political scientists to understand in this era of extreme polarization. Jennifer Wolak has done an absolutely masterful job with this critical, but difficult, topic." -- Marc Hetherington, Raymond Dawson Distinguished Bicentennial Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

"In this first ever deep look at public attitudes toward compromise, Wolak shows that people hold a principled belief in compromise because they are socialized to believe in it as a democratic value. Drawing on existing data and an innovative series of surveys and experiments, Wolak fully examines how context increases or diminishes support for compromise. Partisanship, conflict, and political environments all play a role in people's response to compromise, often in unexpected ways. This excellent book is essential reading for anyone interested in one of the most basic of democratic processes, the need for compromise." -- Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, Willa Cather Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln