BESI director Paul Pierson’s ‘Partisan Nation’ featured in Opportunity Now

Following the November election results, Opportunity Now Silicon Valley, an editorial nonprofit that highlights free market perspectives, solicited book recommendations from political science professors on the topic of polarization.

Berkeley political science professor Susan Hyde selected “Partisan Nation: The Dangerous New Logic of American Politics in a Nationalized Era,” co-authored by BESI director Paul Pierson.

“It is by two of the finest minds on this topic, and they engaged with many contributors to U.S. partisan polarization and the ways in which some of these forces have made polarization self-perpetuating,” Hyde told Opportunity Now. “Rather than simply [pointing the finger] at polarization, it also emphasized the very real consequences of the authoritarian turn within one of our two political parties, and the ways in which U.S. institutions make the United States uniquely vulnerable to such a turn. The book is historical, clear-eyed, and in my view very important for everyone to read.”

Berkeley Political Economy program director Steven Vogel was also invited to share his recommendation. He chose Daniel Chandler’s “Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like?” which applies the political philosophy of John Rawls to create a new progressive agenda that would fundamentally reshape our societies for the better. Chandler gave a warmly received book talk on “Free and Equal” at BESI back in October.

Read the full article now on the Opportunity Now website.