Christopher Baylor, Ph.D. ’12, a lecturer in the political science department, has released a new book, “The Case Against Political Parties,” which is available to all, free of charge.

Baylor is featured in a UCLA Newsroom article, in which he discusses his motivation for writing the book, his thoughts on the nature of political partisanship, past and present, and what reader might take away from book.

“The main point of the book is that parties lead to an ‘in-group/out-group’ mentality and a lack of accountability in democracies that can result in the undermining of checks and balances,” Baylor states. “You can be for political parties, but you should realize that they come with a strong cost.

“I hope that people start frowning upon excessive partisanship, where politics are handled like sports — your personal ‘home team’ can never do any wrong, for example. That kind of thinking in politics can undermine your credibility with people outside of the party and also prevent the people inside the party from making necessary changes or honest assessments.

“Political parties are not synonymous with democracy. I hope that people challenge the assumption that parties are the only way to organize democracy and disagreement. Even if we don’t eliminate parties, we might be better off with weaker partisanship, like the U.S. had in the 1970s or the 1980s.”