Affective Partisanship & Ideological Partisanship (Theories of Religion Redux)

partisanship

[h/t Joshua Garoon] This op-ed by Thomas Edsall here at the NYT about the relationship between group partisanship and ideology reminds me of arguments in theories of religion going back to Marx-Durkheim and Weber that touch upon contemporary affect studies. Do social structure and identity determine ideology and ideas or do ideology and ideas determine social structure and identity? Which comes first? Capitalism or Protestantism?  Which conditions which? Mind or matter? Which is primary and which is secondary and how do they invert, one in the face of the other? While we might say they are intertwined, there is something of a live wire question as we continue to suss out this mobius strip.  Of great helpfulness are the many political scientists cited in the op-ed, and the attention to what many of them are now bringing to affect and politics, and to the distinction drawn between “affective partisanship” and “ideological partisanship.”

About zjb

Zachary Braiterman is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. His specialization is modern Jewish thought and philosophical aesthetics. http://religion.syr.edu
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1 Response to Affective Partisanship & Ideological Partisanship (Theories of Religion Redux)

  1. dmf says:

    what is the science of political science is it something like sociological statistical studies?

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