Prius or Pickup: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide

In this fascinating look at contemporary politics, political scientists Hetherington and Weiler (Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics) set out to explain what really causes the extreme political polarization seen today. They conclude that, for white Americans, it is not political ideology but underlying “worldviews” (expressed by where they live and work, which cars they buy, and even which styles of coffee they prefer) that determine their political affiliations. They find evidence of two opposing worldviews, which they call “fixed” and “fluid”: the first is more fearful of outsiders, change, and uncertainty and favors hierarchy, and the second is more welcoming of complexity, nuance, and unfamiliarity. They argue that a “marriage of worldview and party” in American politics began to develop in the 1970s as party leaders reorganized their platforms around issues, like race, that touched voters’ worldviews—a sharp departure from the mixed-worldview political parties of the past, when the overriding American political issues were taxation and government size. The authors convincingly argue that the consequences of this polarization are deep and “toxic” in a book that will interest watchers of the political landscape of recent decades. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary Management. (Oct.)