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![Beyond Red and Blue](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
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Beyond Red and Blue
How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates
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- 19,99 €
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- 19,99 €
Publisher Description
Why Americans do not divide neatly into red and blue or right and left but form coalitions across party lines on hot-button issues ranging from immigration to same-sex marriage.
On any given night cable TV news will tell us how polarized American politics is: Republicans are from Mars, Democrats are from Canada. But in fact, writes Peter Wenz in Beyond Red and Blue, Americans do not divide neatly into two ideological camps of red/blue, Republican/Democrat, right/left. In real life, as Wenz shows, different ideologies can converge on certain issues; people from the right and left can support the same policy for different reasons. Thus, for example, libertarian-leaning Republicans can oppose the Patriot Act's encroachment on personal freedom and social conservatives can support gay marriage on the grounds that it strengthens the institution of marriage.
Wenz maps out twelve political philosophies—ranging from theocracy and free-market conservatism to feminism and cosmopolitanism—on which Americans draw when taking political positions. He then turns his focus to some of America's most controversial issues and shows how ideologically diverse coalitions can emerge on such hot-button topics as extending life by artificial means, the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, affirmative action, abortion, same-sex marriage, health care, immigration, and globalization.
Awareness of these twelve political philosophies, Wenz argues, can help activists enlist allies, citizens better understand politics and elections, and all of us define our own political identities.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The competing voices in the American political arena are given their due in this nuanced tour of some of the most chewed-over issues of the day. Wenz (Environmental Justice) posits that there are 12 major political philosophies (e.g., libertarianism, contractarianism, feminism and multiculturalism) that, taken in part or in whole, encompass the opinions of most Americans. Fourteen case studies illustrate how these approaches have applied in real-life scenarios, often creating unexpected partnerships and disagreements most dramatically in the Supreme Court case Kelo v. New London, which centered on an eminent domain dispute and eventually saw the CATO Institute allied with the ACLU in favor of personal property rights. While discussions on the shifting legal status of pornography and the complex variables of the American health care system lack strongly unifying set -pieces, they convey a great deal of information about law and policy in a coherent manner. When Wenz occasionally gets personal, as he does in a wrenching and well-presented chapter on physician-assisted suicide, the book transcends talking points to become a satisfying exhibition of political philosophy in action.