Comparison Of Kansas Politics And Government: The Clash Of Political Cultures

When one thinks of Kansas, the thought of diversity hardly comes to mind; however, in their book Kansas Politics and Government: The Clash of Political Cultures Dr. H. Edward Flentje of Wichita State University and Dr. Joseph A. Aistrup of Kansas State University make the argument that cultural and political diversity have led to the numerous accounts of conflict throughout Kansas history and created the political factions that evident in the state today. Kansas Politics and Government: The Clash of Political Cultures is a great in depth summary of all things political in the state of Kansas. It not only covers the Constitution of Kansas as well as the structure and institutions of the government, but also takes a deep dive into the history

Flentje and Aistrup utilize statistic data when they analyze voting statistics as well as demographical variables collected in the census. They also place emphasis on economic data when trying to explain the rural-urban divide in the state by classifying counties based on per capita income levels. For example, in the introduction the authors state “The per capita income of the five urban counties was $40,240 in 2006, and their population growth for the thirty-six-year period was 48.7 percent” (Flentje and Aistrup xxi). Additionally, there are several chapters and subsections of the book devoted entirely to historical analysis of Kansas politics and how certain institutions have developed over time. The authors also make use of the method of personal observation to support their claims in this book. For instance, Flentje and Aistrup form the idea of the Republican Party being split into two camps, the moderate Republicans who they deem as having some characteristics of egalitarianism, hierarchy, and individualism; and the Polar Alliance Republicans who an extreme preference for hierarchy and individualism but almost no sense of egalitarianism. This, of course is based almost entirely on personal observation as it would be difficult to use quantitative statistics to draw this

Additionally, they add “This party dynamic has fostered two Republican factions, polar alliance Republicans on the one hand and moderate Republicans on the other.” (Flentje and Aistrup 25). Credit is given to the New Right movement of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and the pro-life movement for adding fuel to the dividing Republican party and ultimately creating the polar alliance Republicans in Kansas. Although, I do agree with the authors that there is definitely a split in the Republican party that I have seen during my time interning in the Kansas legislature, I disagree with several of the observations they have