Discussing Pernicious Polarization with Dr. Jennifer McCoy, Ph.D.

Update: 2024-10-25

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Our guest Today is Dr. Jennifer McCoy, Ph.D. She is a Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University. We discussed Pernicious Polarization, what causes it, and how to combat it.

Overcoming Polarization Journal of Democracy, Volume 32, Number 1, January 2021, Johns Hopkins University Press

Peter Marty's quote is from “Playing to the Crowds” in The Christian Century that can be found at: https://www.christiancentury.org/first-words/playing-crowds

Craig has discussed the Abraham Lincoln statement in his op-ed, "Rescinding DACA: More than Just the Dreamers," Update, Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (Fall 2017): file:///Users/cmousin/Downloads/Rescinding%20Daca--Update-Fall2017_stamped-3.pdf .

Immigrants' List Civic Action has produced a video, "We Are America" which corroborates some of the economic information regarding how immigrants have contributed to the United States which can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Gman2TwHE

Lincoln's speech can be found in his “July 10, 1858, speech at Chicago.” The Speeches of Abraham Lincoln, Including Inaugurals and Proclamations (Lincoln Centenary Association, NY: 1908).

Jennifer McCoy is professor of political science at Georgia State University and nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She was a senior core fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Budapest, Hungary in spring 2019. McCoy was chosen for the inaugural class of Distinguished University Professorships at Georgia State University in 2013. Specializing in international and comparative politics, Dr. McCoy's areas of expertise include democratic resilience, democratic erosion, and partisan polarization; crisis prevention and conflict resolution; democracy promotion and collective defense of democracy; election processes and international election observation; and Latin American Politics. McCoy’s research program on polarized politics aims to identify the causes, consequences for democracy, and solutions to polarized societies around the world, including the United States. She coined the term “pernicious polarization” to refer to the political polarization that divides societies into mutually distrustful “Us vs. Them” camps, and undermines the capacity of democracies to address critical policy problems.