POL4766: Culture War Politics in the United States and Beyond

This course examines the politics of cultural grievance in the United States and beyond. We will focus primarily on divisions in the U.S. and secondarily on divisions in Europe. During this term, we will take up the following questions: (1) What are some of the core cultural conflicts in the U.S. and Europe? (2) How can we use public opinion polls to measure the presence and intensity of cultural conflict? (3) Why do these conflicts emerge? How are these conflicts sustained? (4) How do cultural conflicts affect the party system, public opinion, and voting behavior? (5) What does the future hold for cultural conflict in the advanced industrialized democracies? By the end of this semester, you will have a broad and deep understanding of why cultural conflicts emerge, how these grievances become politicized, the key cultural conflicts that divide western publics, and the role cultural grievances play in democratic politics. We will cover culture conflicts over gender roles, sexual identity, race and immigration, religion, individualism, and collectivism.

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