The Democratic Party, De-Centering of Race, and The Partisan Liberal Bargain

Drawing from feminist scholarship, this thesis re-articulates the concept of “liberal bargain” to makes sense of political parties, race and class in the United States. Specifically, the concept of “partisan liberal bargain” is developed in this thesis to capture how the Democratic party's behavior strategically de-centers race in favor of class discourse. These bargains, the thesis argues, reinforces how liberal orders and racial orders operate together to marginalize both racial and class-based minorities. Employing discourse analysis of over 1,000 news articles, the thesis reveals and unpacks bargains occurring during the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries, with a focus on three policy areas where racial justice is intimately and historically embedded: 1) criminal justice, 2) health care, and 3) environmental policy. Discourse analysis empirically captures the thesis’ concept of partisan liberal bargains, showing a prominent lack of concrete or substantial centering of race and strong centering of class and neoliberal discourse. Thus, despite the Democratic party’s strong African American voting bloc and association as the party of race and diversity, this thesis and the concept of partisan liberal bargains shows that racial justice is avoided and even delegitimized in party politics.