The Structural Roots of the Paranoid Style - The Rational Roots of Irrational Politics

• In Event: 261 - Section on Political Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 14. Structural Roots and Political Outcomes

Abstract

Richard Hofstader’s 1964 essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” has drawn increased attention over the past decade as a way to describe the increasingly strident rhetoric from the American political right. This paper argues that many of the modern applications of Hofstader tend to emphasize the seemingly irrational nature of the right-wing to the detriment of theorizing right-wing politics. The paper’s historical case study of the Republican Party in Texas over the past two decades suggests ways in which the paranoid style can be a reflection of structural issues related to party politics, rather than a reflection of psychological tendencies of individuals. This insight can help push examinations of the right-wing’s increasingly strident rhetoric on immigration and other touchstone cultural issues, away from psychological explanations and toward the ways in which political systems can produce structural incentives toward the seemingly “irrational” politics that Hofstadter pointed out over fifty years ago.

Author

• John D Kincaid, Cal State Stanislaus