Political polarization and the US Midterms

In advance of historic midterm elections in the U.S., we welcome Lilliana Mason, a premier political scientist and scholar of political polarization, in Frankfurt to speak to the cleavages of policy and identity in today's politics. Why has partisanship become so entrenched and, for many, emotionally resonant? How do class, gender, race, age, and geography all weigh on an individual's political preferences and allegiances? Can these disagreements be channelled toward a healthy and productive democratic process—or do they risk estrangement, cynicism, even violence? These questions have become both more fraught and urgent in an age of hyper-partisanship and rising right-wing populist movements. Both German state elections in September and U.S. Congressional elections in November provide a relevant occasion to consider the many undercurrents and emerging trends determining their possible answers.

In conversation with Joshua Yaffa, journalist for The New Yorker and writer-in-residence at Bard College Berlin, Mason will lead a discussion on her research and its implications for democratic societies, both in the United States and Europe.

The discussion will be followed by a Q&A.

Lilliana Mason is an SNF Agora Institute Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University where she is the director of the Democracy and Division Lab. She is author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity; and co-author of Radical American Partisanship: Mapping Violent Hostility, Its Causes, and the Consequences for Democracy. She has published research on partisan identity and political violence in journals such as American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Politics. Her work has also been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and National Public Radio.

Joshua Yaffa is Writer-in-Residence at Bard College Berlin. He is a contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of “Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia”, which won the Orwell Prize in 2021.

This event is part of a Bard College Berlin’s and the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s event series, “Writing Democracy: Stories, Ideas, and Arguments On and Off the Page.” The series brings prominent journalists and writers into conversation with a broad audience in Berlin and across Germany to discuss issues of civic and political importance in both Germany and the United States. Through the lens of writing, the series offers a wider exploration of democracy and democratic institutions in a transatlantic context, including politics and society in the U.S. and Europe, the lessons of history, the role of democratic values, and misconceptions on both sides of the Atlantic, all with the aim of strengthening transatlantic ties in a challenging time.