Postmodern Politics in America

Abstract

Since the 1980s American national politics has experienced a shift—from the paradigm of modern politics to the paradigm of postmodern politics. Postmodern politics involves the use of images to emotionally connect with citizens and the staging of pseudo-events and hyperreal spectacles. With the growth of niche identity groups and the increasing intensity of partisanship politics has become fragmented and bipartisanship and consensus building has become difficult. These patterns seem incompatible with democracy. While postmodern politics offers hope that citizens might become involved in politics through the use of digital technologies, to date this has not occurred. The disturbing trend of postmodern politics is to make decision-making less transparent and less accountable and reduce the role of citizen to passive audience member.