Political Volatility in the United States

How Racial and Religious Groups Win and Lose

Baodong Liu

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2022
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978757202
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The unexpected shift from the election of Barack Obama and the post-racial hope to the racial confrontations in the Trump era begs the question: Why did such a big volatile swing happen in such a short period of time? Uncertainty reigns in volatile political times. This book aims to provide a systemic model for understanding how political volatility throughout the U.S. history has had its root in two competing racial and religious groupings. Moreover, the groupings grounded in white supremacy and egalitarianism have collided, contested, and facilitated the configuration and reconfiguration of the atomic political structure. As demonstrated in this book, the antagonism between the two competing identity groupings led to a history of political volatility in the United States. Contrary to the endless "political deadlocks" suggested by the scholars of American political development, this book explains how and why the two orders persist, reach peaks of volatility, and why one temporarily achieves prominence over the other. Going beyond the simplistic view of racial and religious hierarchy, this book provides an account rooted in structural tensions, strategic imperatives, opportunities, and threats on collective actions.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• I: Introducing the Theory and Principles of the Atomic Structure
• Chapter 1: Political Volatility and Social Groups: A Puzzle
• Chapter 2: An Overview of the Atomic Structure
• Chapter 3: Rationality and Perceptions: Political Habits and Responses
• Chapter 4: The Origins of Multiple Threats
• Chapter 5: Concrete and Abstract Threats: Group Perceptions and Responses
• Chapter 6: Hostility and Group Experiences: The ADVICE Principles (I)
• Chapter 7: Volatility: The ADVICE Principles (II)
• Chapter 8: Internal Threat, Competition, and the Atomic Structure: The ADVICE Principles (III)
• II: Applying the Atomic Structure Theory to American Political Developments
• Chapter 9: The Shift Away from WASP Domination
• Chapter 10: Atomic Structure and the WASP Decline
• Chapter 11: The Core of the New Atomic Structure
• Chapter 12: Racial Minority versus Religious Minority: The 2012 Presidential Election
• Chapter 13: The Surge of White Nationalism in the Trump Era
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author