My book American Opinion on Trade: Preferences without Politics is available to order from Oxford University Press.
I build upon prior my prior research on the salience of trade to explain why trade has fallen out of political discourse in recent campaigns, despite a growing divide between public opinion and US trade policy. Although trade policy once defined U.S. political parties, many politicians now attempt to avoid the topic of trade and few political entrepreneurs seek to disturb this silence. I identify previously overlooked sources of protectionist sentiment such as gender and race-based employment concerns and race-based ideas about which groups deserve redistribution. I show the difficulties politicians face in mobilizing sentiment based on these or previously identified determinants of opinion and the potential political dangers of attempts to move public opinion on trade closer to current policy on trade.
Hear more about the American Opinion on Trade by clicking on this podcast with Micha Zenko of the Council for Foreign Relations”: “What Americans Really Think about Trade: A Conversation with Alexandra Guisinger.”