POLI 130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Party System, Scapegoating, Essentialism
Document Summary
Identities are so essential to who we are and they are going to inevitably conflict. Used to explain international and local conflicts. Weakness: not clear which identity is so essential. Often viewed as the weakest explanations for identity conflict usually only emerges only after a conflict emerges. Exaggerate the tension and make it a lot worse. Not essential identities that lead to politicization, but rather entrepreneurs. Ex: germans/nazis blamed jews for economic problems. Priming don"t explicitly blame them, instead you subtly activate those tensions to divide people and rally support by priming people to think about those divisions. Ex: black people committing a crime or using welfare. Ex: willie horton bush sr. released picture of this man to highlight his opponent"s weak crime policies. Ex: (cid:617)00(cid:623) presidential campaign democrats talking about john mccain"s age. Refers to # of active political parties. One party system can be divisive because one party is in power and others are oppressed.
