How Did We Get Here: Primaries, Polarization, and Party Control
We examine the existing evidence on party primaries and political polarization and find that primary elections are not strongly related to polarization.
October 12, 2023
How Did We Get Here: Women and Minorities in American Political Parties
Federal law was necessary to stop states from discriminating against minorities in 1965; it may be necessary today.
October 12, 2023
How Did We Get Here: Permeable Parties — Groups and the Organization of the American Party System
Groups and factions are central to any understanding of American political parties as organizations and as an organizing force in American politics.
October 12, 2023
How Did We Get Here: Understanding the Demographic Sources of America’s Party Divisions
This chapter examines demographic divisions in our partisan choices. It shows that race, more than anything else, divides us politically.
October 10, 2023
The Functions of Political Parties: How Much Should We Trust Political Parties?
According to recent opinion polls in the United States and other democracies, political parties are the least trusted public institution.
October 10, 2023
The Functions of Political Parties: Introduction
The solution to today’s political problems is not to eliminate parties altogether. Instead, we want those working to improve American politics are all starting on the same page.
October 6, 2023
More Than Red and Blue: Preface
This report exists in no small part because of where we are currently in American political time. American politics and indeed American society are highly polarized and deeply divided.
October 6, 2023
More Than Red and Blue: Foreword
The idea for this task force was the result of two separate but parallel sets of conversations — one that began during my presidency of APSA, and one that preceded it.
October 5, 2023
More Than Red and Blue: Executive Summary
APSA and Protect Democracy have partnered to support the APSA Presidential Task Force on Political Parties in summarizing the existing political science research on responsible political parties.
October 5, 2023
Lessons from the history of proportional representation in America
In terms of PR, what matters is that majority coalitions can hold themselves together — be they single-party or alliances of parties.
September 13, 2023