Mcadam And Kloos Summary

Q-1: McAdam and Kloos write a book to try to understand how American politics evolved in the 1950s from a politics of moderation, bipartisan cooperation and relative economic equality to today’s politics of savage partisan divisions and sharp economic inequality. Their first chapter provides an overview of their explanation. Provide in your words a summary of this overview.
HINT: This is a course on social or protest movements. If your answer for Q-1 does not feature some ideas about the role of social movements, you probably need to review the material. Despite the desired trend towards less racism with the election of the first African American president, the opposite has occurred. Instead of bringing Americans together, America has become increasingly more polarized. As McAdam and Kloos write, “the country is now more starkly divided in political terms than at any time since the end of Reconstruction and more unequal in material terms than roughly a century ago and greater, even, than on the eve of the Great Depression” (McAdam and Kloos 4). An increase in inequality has only given rise to protest groups such as Occupy Wall St that protested the rising inequality between the 1%

The authors of the text also look at the interaction between race, region, and movement when looking at the evolution of American politics. As party elites and political activists have found a wider partisan divide in issues, the ordinary American still harbors the same general outlook on social and political issues as in the past. Despite or rather in spite of this, Americans are showing an increased lack of confidence in their government and elected officials. This lack of confidence over career politicians has fueled actions such as the election of Donald Trump who campaigned as a successful businessman apart from the ordinary politics of