Comments by stephenthenerd

  • Moral Foundations theory explores the differences in underlying values that drive our partisan differences.

    February 26, 2017

  • Cognitive politics is the effect of psychological factors on partisan identity. This is in contrast to economic, social or religious reasons. For example, someone could be a social-conservative, fiscal-liberal, or cognitive-conservative. It is a subset of the broader field of political psychology, but specifically related to partisan identity.

    Definition of Cognitive Politics

    Moral Foundations Theory is one example of looking at the cognitive underpinnings (in this case, values) that determine partisanship.

    February 26, 2017

  • Bipartisan, cross-partisan and transpartisan are related terms. Bipartisan usually implies both parties are cooperating on an issue: both parties have similar positions and come to an agreement. Cross-partisan often implies that some people from both parties are cooperating on an issue: the slight difference is that this might not be balanced, or might not involve the parties as a whole coming together. 


    For example, on the Patriot Act surveillance, Tea Party members might join with more left-leaning Democrats in one cross-partisan coalition to oppose a centrist cross-partisan coalition. An coalition that is 95% from one party and 5% from the other is cross-partisan, not really bipartisan. Also, a group might be cross-partisan -- for example, a political magazine might have a cross-partisan audience (but it would not make sense to call an audience bipartisan).  

    Transpartisan is used to discuss people who are actively trying to get the parties cooperating or to move beyond partisanship in a broad sense. 

    Examples:
    "There was agreement on the bipartisan bill." "They were able to build a cross-partisan coalition to oppose the President." "I've joined a group working on transpartisan cooperation."

    February 26, 2017