Political Ideologies and Political Parties in America

Hans Noel is an Assistant Professor of Government at Georgetown University, Washington DC, where he teaches on political parties and statistical methods. He received his PhD in 2006 from the University of California, Los Angeles and has been a fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University, New Jersey and a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Reform at the University of Michigan. Noel is the recipient of the 2009 Emerging Scholar Award from the Political Organizations and Parties section of the American Political Science Association. He is the co-author of The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations before and after Reform.

• 1. Introduction: distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler; 2. The coalition merchants: ideologies, parties, and their interaction; 3. Creative synthesis: why ideology?; 4. The independent development of ideology; 5. Ideology remakes the parties; 6. Issue politics in ideological context; 7. Polarized parties; 8. Conclusion: toward the study of creative synthesis.

'The final point above is also true of the entire book: Political Ideologies and Political Parties in America is a must-read for scholars of American political parties, indeed for scholars of American politics in general. It will most certainly affect the ongoing academic conversations in these areas as scholars read and think about Noel's work.' Mark D. Brewer, University of Maine, Orono