Political Polarization in the American Public

About the Event

Study Group on America and the West

Chair: Ron Granieri, Executive Director,FPRI’s Center for the Study of America and the West

4:30 p.m. Seminar; 6:00 p.m. Dinner

In June, Pew Research Center released the first two reports in a series aimed at understanding the nature and scope of political polarization in the American public, and how it interrelates with government, society and people’s personal lives. The reports are based on the largest, nationally representative U.S. political survey that the center has conducted, with interviews among more than 10,000 adults. The two major reports, “Political Polarization in the American Public,” released on June 12, and “Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology,” released on June 26, together show that partisan polarization – the vast and growing gap between Republicans and Democrats – is a defining feature of politics today. Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines, and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive, than at any point in the last two decades.

Join the FPRI Study Group on America and the West as we discuss these groundbreaking surveys and their implications for the United States today and into the future.

Jocelyn Kiley is associate director of research at the Pew Research Center, where she primarily works on U.S. public opinion about politics. She is involved in all stages of the research process at the center, and is a principal investigator on the center’s work on political polarization in the American public, as well its regular election polling. Prior to joining the Pew Research Center in 2008, Kiley worked in research and evaluation for several media and governmental organizations. She has a master’s degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. Her graduate work primarily concerned issues of racial and ethnic political identity in the U.S., as well as the role of the media in shaping public opinion. She received her bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology from Harvard University. Kiley discusses the center’s findings with the news media and regularly presents to outside audiences and at the American Association for Public Opinion Research’s annual conference.

The Study Group Idea: Greater Philadelphia is home to 80-plus institutions of higher learning, and FPRI is the place where the great minds of these institutions meet through our Inter-University Study Groups. Each session a guest speaker presents a paper for in-depth discussion in seminar format and in the dinner following.

Registration

Participation is limited to university faculty and graduate students, and to FPRI Members at the $1000 level.

Reservations are required. RSVP: events@fpri.org

For more information contact 215 732 3774, ext 200 or events@fpri.org.

Speakers