Is Policy Polarization Going Up?

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Is policy polarization going up? I know people vote more according to the national party's reputation, but in terms of actual policy, doesn't it just not matter that much? My understanding is it policy ization f the state level actually has gone up quite a bit. And certainly the partisan polarization i know in state legislatures has gone up a lot. But say what a state government does? If 80 % of the voters more or less support it, and then when a change of government comes, you don't notice a change in the budget,. i would say that's not so polarized in terms of policy.

In his new book, Ezra Klein argues that polarization in America has become centered on partisan political identities, which has subsumed virtually every form of identity, be it where we live, what team we root for, the church we attend, or any other. This stacked form of polarization thus carries much more weight and is activated by a wider range of conflicts than before.

But is polarization really such a pressing concern? If it’s all merged into one form of identity politics then aren’t we just polarizing more efficiently? Over what percentage of GDP are we more polarized today versus in the past?

Tyler posed these questions to Ezra and more, including thoughts on Silicon Valley’s intellectual culture, his disagreement with Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Foundations Theory, the limits of telecommuting, how becoming a father made him less conservative, his post-kid production function, why Manhattan is overrated, the “cosmic embarrassment” of California’s governance, why he loved Marriage Story, the future of the BBC and PBS, what he learned in Pakistan, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded December 27th, 2019 Other ways to connect

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Follow Ezra on Twitter
Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.