Anxious Politics: Democracy in the Age of Partisanship | National Humanities Center

Humanities in Class: Webinar Series

Anxious Politics: Democracy in the Age of Partisanship

Democracy; Politics; Politicians; Political Parties

Shana Gadarian (Professor and Department Chair, Political Science, Syracuse University)

September 2, 2021

Emotions matter in politics—enthusiastic supporters return politicians to office, angry citizens march in the streets, a fearful public demands protection from the government. The webinar will explore the emotional life of politics, with particular emphasis on how political anxieties affect public life. When the world is scary, when politics is passionate, when the citizenry is anxious, does this politics resemble politics under more serene conditions? If politicians use threatening appeals to persuade citizens, how does the public respond? Anxious Politics argues that political anxiety triggers engagement in politics in ways that are potentially both promising and damaging for democracy.


Subjects

Political Science / Democracy / Politics / Politicians / Political Parties /

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0