Commentary: UCI professor asks whether our political polarity could lead to the kind of discord seen abroad

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Scott A. Bollens, professor of urban planning and public policy, wrote an op-ed about political conflict in the Daily Pilot. An excerpt:

For nearly 30 years, I have studied the dynamics of political conflict, fragmentation and division in Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, and former Yugoslavia. 

These countries have been traumatized by deep ethnic and nationalistic inter-group conflict, sustained political violence, and a dissolution or decay of legitimacy of central government powers. Students and colleagues have typically asked me, “Can it happen here?”

With the George Floyd protests engulfing American cities, they are now asking me, “Is it happening here?”

There are disturbing similarities between the politically polarized areas of my focus and the dynamics of American political and social life today. However, there are also assuring qualities of our system that make us different from these extreme cases. Yet, even my assurances may not be fully reassuring to you.

Read the full commentary

Related

Medium: Can it Happen Here? Is it Happening Here?

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