This dissertation investigates the structural economic underpinnings of the rise in negative identity politics in the United States, exploring the extent to which globalization, automation, and broader deindustrialization trends contribute to the rising of right-wing populism. It posits that the manufacturing sector’s decline, driven by globalization and automation and other factors, has significantly reshaped the labor market and exacerbated partisan polarization and racial divisions, particularly among the white working class. The thesis contends that the diminishing of manufacturing jobs, historically intertwined with white privilege, has sparked an identity crisis among white Americans, fueling a nostalgia for a past racial and economic order and providing fertile ground for white identity politics. As white workers often cannot identify the precise sources of their economic distress, it argues that the combined effects of deindustrialization, rather than globalization or automation alone, are more substantially linked to the rise of white identity politics. This study challenges the traditional political economy model that interprets grievances through the lens of public demand for redistribution, suggesting that white Americans' backlash against economic shocks manifests primarily in symbolic racial tensions rather than in affective partisan polarization or redistributive policies. Drawing on nationally representative survey data, the dissertation investigates the link between economic shocks and identity politics, finding evidence of a correlation between deindustrialization and racial tensions, and indicating that white Americans may be channeling their grievances into identity politics rather than seeking redistribution.
Read
