Question 1 What is partisan polarization? Partisan polarization refers to the rising differences in the political and voting behavior of individuals usually caused by an excessive partisanship and a deep ideological political view by the parties. According to Michael Barber and Nolan McCarty in “Causes and Consequences of Polarization” there are some ways to measure the partisan voting differences, such as capturing the partisan conflict, ideological positioning and constituency, analyzing party loyalty and also party discipline. Discuss both causes and consequences of partisan polarization. There are multiple causes for the partisan polarization. The main causes studied in class based on the Barber and McCarthy reading are: 1. A polarized …show more content…
electorate which can be translated as voter-induced polarization. This cause requires voters to be continuously attached to their political parties and ideological basis and extremely polarized in their policy preferences along with ideological identification. Therefore, the partisan identification becomes a predictor of voting behavior. However, as a consequence, citizens started to dislike the other party even more leading to a stronger polarization. 2.
Southern Realignment which happened a significant increase in the number of Republicans representing the Southern districts in the Congress. Based on this change Barber and McCarthy states, “the realignment of the South from a solidly Democratic region to one dominated by Republican is the starkest example of the sorting of ideology and partisanship”. 3. Gerrymandering which allow state legislatures to draw congressional districts. However, as a consequence of the gerrymandering, one political party will be favor over the other party. Therefore, strengthening the majority party while weakening the minority one what can lead a decrease of minority representation. 4. Primary elections which also leads to an increase of partisan polarization as conservative citizens tends to vote for the Republican Party and liberals to the Democratic party. However, when the primaries move to closed primaries polarization tends to get even stronger and, as a consequence, it gets distant from what the mean median voter would …show more content…
be. 5. Economic inequality since voting behavior and partisan identification can get higher or lower according to the income. As a consequence, “policy reflects the preferences of the wealthy more often than the desires of those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder” . 6. Money in politics considering the fact that polarization is extremely connected to the system of private campaign finance in the US elections. As a consequence of that fact, politicians will be more willing to pursue the policy objectives on behalf of those who funded their campaigns. 7. Media environment has a significant role in the polarization process in which “partisan voters increasingly self-select into news outlets that confirm their basic partisan and ideological biases” . As a downfall is that this narrow casting contributes to polarization, due to the fact that a Republican will avoid watching a news that is more left-wing and Democrat will avoid a right-wing news channel. How has partisan polarization varied over time? In the United States, from 1930’s until mid-1970’s polarization was considered quite low.
The differences between the usual Republican and Democratic legislators were smaller than today, besides that there were also a little number of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans. However, after 1970, the polarization of the House and the Senate started to be steadier and increase when compared to the 1930’s. The polarization increased along with a significant party conflict that started to show up on both houses of Congress. Considering the ideological differences between the parties’ polarization got even stronger in the past 40 years. Even though is believed that polarization was a result from the behavior changes of both parties in which the Democrats moved to left and the Republicans to the right, there are evidences that demonstrate that are actually “largely driven by changes in the positioning of the Republican Party.” When analyzed the past 40 years, it’s noticeable that the most significant trend was marked by the movement of the Republican Party to the right . This change of the Republican Party has influenced Southern and non-Southern members. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party change to the left was marked mostly by economic
issues. How does partisan polarization manifest itself differently in the House vs. the Senate and how does partisan polarization effect different stages of the legislative process? According to Barber and McCarthy the “Congress is more polarized than any time in the recent past”. The main causes for this polarization can be explained and divided in two categories. First based on changes to the external environment of Congress and secondly based on changes to the internal environment. An internal explanation of partisan polarization in the House of Representatives is made by the changes in the rules and procedures in the Congress. For instance, the change in the House regarding how votes were recorded in the Committee of the Whole . Those changes turned the process for amendments to be proposed when considering legislation easier. According to Barber and McCarthy, the polarization process also brought to the leaders of the majority party of the House the power to have a more significant ability to use their control over the legislative agenda, in order to prevent intraparty divisions. Along with those powers, the rise of polarization also brought to the House and the Senate more power, due to the fact that they can force greater pressure on members to vote along their party lines. Considering the fact that members of Congress are, at times, more polarized that citizens it is high likely that legislators will have effects on the different stages of the legislative process what can lead to serious consequences for policy making. Therefore, the expected consequences of polarization in the Congress are not good. That is explained because the increase of policy differences can shrink the set of compromises that both parties are willing to consider; leading to more gridlock and less policy innovation due to the fact that the government is polarized. In addition to the gridlock, the polarization system can cause numerous super-majoritarian institutions and veto points. Such as the presidential veto and the Senate filibuster which reduces the chances of equal opportunities for a new legislation or policy. As a consequence of the partisan polarization phenomenon on both houses of Congress it got reduced the ability to legislate. Eventually affecting public-policy outcomes caused by the Congress’s power in take unilateral action rather than pursue their goals through legislation.
Furthermore, he introduces the idea that popular polarization is different from partisan polarization and that sorting has occurred within the parties. Meaning that “those who affiliate with a party… are more likely to affiliate with the ideologically ‘correct’ party than they were [before]” (Fiorina et al. 61). To illustrate the concept of polarization he uses a figure with marble filled urns. These urns depict red blue and gray marbles with r for republican d for democrat and i for independent. When polarization, all gray independent marbles disappear becoming either red or blue.
Because the most polarized individuals are often the most politically active, they have the most influence on the government, which results in the election of polarized candidates and policies.
Throughout American history, politics changed with the times, forming and growing as new situations and environments took place. However, the most drastic differences occurred between 1815 and 1840. During this time, the North and South develop different economic systems, which created political differences between the regions. Between 1815 and 1840, the number of eligible voters drastically increased as politicians utilized a wider variety of campaigning methods in order to appeal to as many voters as possible, all essentially caused by economic growth. Politics grow to include universal white male suffrage, a strong national government, and nationalism versus sectionalism. Economic Growth (American System, Industrial Revolution, Sectional Economies, Internal Improvements & Inventions) caused the political party changes.
In Sinclair’s analysis, voters, political activists, and politicians all play significant roles in creating and enforcing the ideological gap between the two major parties in Congress. This trend of polarization is rooted in the electorate
Gerrymandering is a way for a political party to keep control of a state by drawing the district lines unevenly. They make sure to keep a majority of the people in the districts are a part of their party, so their party will have more seats in the House of Representatives. This is a big problem because in most districts, there is no way for the minority party to win in those districts.
Whether political polarization is good or bad for the nation is still up for debate, but the general consensus is it exists due to a variety of reasons. From the construction of our Constitution, it is clear that the intent of our founding fathers was to create opposition in order to prevent tyranny from prevailing. Polarization is a result of the dividing of a nation into political parties. Though polarization has fluctuated throughout the years, it has caused a great deal of trouble in regards to passing legislation and has resulted in a gridlocked Congress. Even though some fear congressional polarization is destined to get worse, “it is mathematically impossible for congress to get much more polarized” than it is now.
In conclusion, American’s politic had changed dramatically during 1848-1861 period. Duo to slavery expansion, the nation was separated by two different ideologies- slave system and free labor. The creation of Republican Party was essential and potential to end slavery in the south. Furthermore, slave’s impact in politic was the result of sectional divide. The result of slavery’s dispute was the Civil war, and it stamped that the standing of Republican and Democrat parties in Congress for decades.
Hypothesis #1: Other than wartime issues, republicans seem to vote with republicans while democrats choose to vote with their fellow democrats on various issues.
There is much debate in the United States regarding whether there is polarization between our two dominant political parties. Presidential election results have shown that there is a division between the states, a battle between the Democratic blue states and the Republican red states. What is striking is that the “colors” of these states do not change. Red stays red, and blue stays blue. Chapter 11 of Fault Lines gives differing views of polarization.
The first is “Bipartisanship” by an unknown source, which highlights the evolution of partisanship in the U.S. and shows how far apart the two parties are on some issues. The second is “On Partisanship” by S.W. of The Economist and this article is about how people are worried about the state of the government as a result of partisanship. Both of these articles reference how the founding fathers, specifically James Madison, did not think that political parties were a good idea for the young nation. Although they do differ on what they think about partisanship, S.W. says “The only way democracy works is for elected officials representing often radically divergent opinions to be forced—through conflicting election results—to hammer out compromises.”(S.W.) Whereas the other article provides information that partisanship is having an extreme negative impact on the compromising process, because they’re so...
Today, political parties can be seen throughout everyday life, prevalent in various activities such as watching television, or seeing signs beside the road while driving. These everyday occurrences make the knowledge of political parties commonly known, especially as the two opposing political parties: the Republicans and the Democrats. Republican and Democrats have existed for numerous years, predominantly due to pure tradition, and the comfort of the ideas each party presents. For years, the existence of two political parties has dominated the elections of the president, and lower offices such as mayor, or the House of Representatives. Fundamentally, this tradition continues from the very emergence of political parties during the election of 1796, principally between Federalist John Adams and Anti-federalist Thomas Jefferson. Prior to this election people unanimously conformed to the ideas of one man, George Washington, and therefore did not require the need for political parties.1 However, following his presidency the public was divided with opposing opinions, each arguing the best methods to regulate the country. Ultimately, the emergence of different opinions regarding the future of the United States involving the economy, foreign relations, ‘the masses,’ and the interpretation of the Constitution, led to the two political parties of the 1790s and the critical election of 1800.
One of the most important principles behind voting is the idea that each citizen or voter has equal input, a principle often referred to as “one person, one vote”. Theoretically for each vote to carry equal weight, each voting district should contain the same number of voters, however with populations constantly shifting this can be difficult to achieve. In order to accomplish this equality, redistricting allows states to redraw the boundaries of their electoral districts following the census every ten years. Typically the majority party has control over redistricting and uses it to redraw districts in order to give their candidates the best chance at winning each district. This practice, known as gerrymandering, has been a major and controversial aspect of redistricting since its inception.
When one hears polarization what comes to mind? Division? Freezing? Polarization being discussed is the views of people and how they differ. So what is political polarization? Political polarization refers to cases in which an individual’s stance on a given issue, policy, or person is more likely to be strictly defined by their identification with a particular political party or ideology. Politics have caused many problems in our country and polarization is a very significant one. The articles “Divided We Now Stand”, “What’s Wrong with Washington? Tribalism”, and “How Politics Break Our Brains, and How We Can Put Them Back Together” all have two main subjects in common which are how polarization in our country has worsened over the years, and
American democracy was built on the foundation of compromises. For example, the Constitution would have never been ratified if the Bills of Rights was not part of the compromise. In a system that is built on making compromises, it is dangerous to have high levels of political polarization. The Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate are constantly at a gridlock and are on the path to becoming the most unproductive Congress since World War II. Despite the “growth” of self-proclaimed Independent, a quick look at their voting history would show that they are usually weak Democrats or weak Republicans. In American politics, party identification is still the single best indicator of how a person will vote. In recent years, both parties have become smaller and more ideologically homogeneous; Republicans are dominated by conservatives, while a growing number of Democrats call themselves liberals. Most Americans claim that they see important differences between the parties and many feel that they must stay loyal to their party especially during presidential elections.
In recent years, Congress has become increasingly polarized. The definition of partisan polarization is the separation of the two major parties as they move towards more extreme issue positions. Some theories on why this political phenomenon is occurring now claim that this polarization is due to: a return to the “natural” state of government; the increase in polarization of the electorate since the Southern Realignment; the increase of polarization in the media; and gerrymandering. The increase of partisan polarization in Congress has various consequences for American policy and politics, including congressional gridlock and the inability of the legislative and executive branches to get anything substantial done in terms of policy, and increasing