Political Conflict in America (PDF)

ALAN WARE Professor of Politics at Oxford University, UK, and a fellow at Worcester College.

'Alan Ware presents a valuable and thought-provoking big picture interpretation of the long-term nature of political conflict in American politics. Few scholars could undertake this, but he pulls it off admirably. He is concerned with the historical sources and intensity of conflicts - the roles of region, class, religion, and ideology over time. He addresses how those conflicts are represented and perpetuated by parties and politicians as they work within decentralized American institutional arrangements. He presents a convincing answer to the question of why elections in America rarely settle anything, but only provide the context for the next round of conflict. This analysis asks important and broad questions and provides comparative commentary. It is well-written interpretative political science at its best and provides many arguments for further research. For those interested in the fundamentals of conflict in American politics, I highly recommend it.' - Jeff Stonecash, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

'In Political Conflict in America, Alan Ware goes in search, not of the minutiae all too common to the study of American politics, but of a small set of lasting influences that have created its diagnostic hallmark: multiple policy disputes that are ongoing, rancorous, and never truly settled. In Ware's hands, social divisions, ideological divisions, institutional divisions, and partisan divisions come together, almost from the beginning, to shape American politics into our time.' - Byron E. Shafer, Hawkins Chair of Political Science, University of Wisconsin

'A well-informed, intelligent, and intriguing attempt to make sense of American politics tout court. Ware's intellectual style combines a quest to answer the Big Questions with attention to detail that is often neglected by others on that quest. Every chapter brings with it intriguing comments and revealing insights reflecting Ware's intelligence, lifetime of research on American