Donald Trump, the U.S. Elections, and the future of the Republican Party

Benjamin I. Page

Gordon Fulcher Professor of Decision-making

Department of Political Science, Northwestern University

September 13, Tuesday, 16:00-17:30, SEIS 417

About the Lecture: To the surprise of many American voters and foreign observers, Donald Trump has become the Republican nominee. However, unless something big and unexpected happens, Clinton is likely to beat Trump in a landslide, and the Republicans will lose many seats in Congress. What is important is not just this result, but the fact that Trump has exposed deep conflicts among different factions of the GOP: libertarian big-money donors, socially conservative party activists, moderate ordinary voters, and elected officials who have pleased the donors and activists but ignored the voters. There will be a noisy, messy struggle to put together a new Republican Party. The Democrats will have to change too. American politics will not be the same. This has some important implications for China.

About the Speaker: Professor Page is one of the leading scholars of American politics. He earned his A.B. from Stanford, J.D. from Harvard Law School, and Ph.D. from Stanford. He has taught at Dartmouth College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Chicago. His research interests include public opinion and policy making, the mass media, empirical democratic theory, political economy, policy formation, the presidency, and American foreign policy. He has won numerous prestigious awards for his outstanding scholarly achievements. His most recent article is “Testing Theories of American Politics” (2014). His forthcoming book is entitled Democracy in America?, co-authored with Martin Gilens from Princeton University.