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This edited volume investigates America's transforming democracy as it faces the challenges and developments of the 21st century-challenges and developments that have brought deep dissatisfaction, cultural fragmentation, and economic indignation. Although political power remains in the hands of the people, a fundamental incapability to compromise has locked policymakers in a permanent stalemate. In this legislative paralysis, grassroots movements build more and more momentum amidst regular protests and civil disobedience. This new political vigor and dynamism is dualistic, portending either a future of falsehoods and authoritarianism or a more empowering and direct form of democracy. This book ultimately seeks to understand how the US government is frantically adjusting to these sharp cultural, technological, and economic changes.
List of contents
1. Constitutional Crisis, Norm Derogation and the Broader Impact of Partisan Polarization in Contemporary American Politics.- 2. A Wolf in Wolf's Clothing: The Trumpian Style(TM) in American Politics.- 3. The Politics of Removal: The Impeachment of a President.- 4. From 2016 to 2020: It's the economy, still.- 5. Future Unknown: How Digital technologies and the 'Future of Work' are Unsettling America.- 6. The Transformation of the Congressional Primary.- 7. When inequalities matter: Exploring the crisis of democracy from below.- 8. The US Supreme Court: Source of or Barrier to Polarisation?.- 9. From Democracy to Oligarchy? The Power of Property in the United States.- 10. Does identity trump everything? Nativist anxieties within the Republican Party and the future political relevance of ethnic and racial identities.- 11. A Journey for Justice: Immigrant Mobilization in Response to the Revocation of TPS.- 12. Transforming democracy andpartisanship: globalization and its counter-movements in the U.S..- 13. America and the Changing Global Order.- 14. Trump's Foreign Policy: Erratic Individualism vs National Identity Change.- 15. A Breakdown of Trust: Trump, Europe and the Transatlantic Security Community.- 16. The American Democracy in 2019.
About the author
Michael T. Oswald is Assistant Professor and the Chair for Political Science at the University of Passau, Germany, Research Associate at the John F. Kennedy Institute, Free University of Berlin, Germany, and Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, USA.
Summary
This edited volume investigates America’s transforming democracy as it faces the challenges and developments of the 21st century—challenges and developments that have brought deep dissatisfaction, cultural fragmentation, and economic indignation. Although political power remains in the hands of the people, a fundamental incapability to compromise has locked policymakers in a permanent stalemate. In this legislative paralysis, grassroots movements build more and more momentum amidst regular protests and civil disobedience. This new political vigor and dynamism is dualistic, portending either a future of falsehoods and authoritarianism or a more empowering and direct form of democracy. This book ultimately seeks to understand how the US government is frantically adjusting to these sharp cultural, technological, and economic changes.
