Polarization (politics)
Encyclopedia
In politics
, polarization (or polarisation) is the process by which the public opinion divides and goes to the extremes. It can also refer to when the extreme factions of a political party gain dominance in a party. In either case moderate
voices often lose power and influence as a consequence.
. There, it is a measure of the electorate's response to a political figure or position; it is not an assessment of, or a value judgment upon, a political figure. It does not mean that a political figure is necessarily unelectable. Political figures can receive a polarized response from the public through actions of their own, through historical trends or accidents, or due to external forces such as media bias
.
Political scientists principally measure polarization in two ways. One is "plain" or generic polarization, often referred to as popular polarization, which happens when opinions diverge towards poles of distribution or intensity. Political scientists use several kinds of metrics to measure popular polarization, such as the American National Election Studies' "feeling thermometer" polls, which measure the degree of opinion about a political figure.
The other form that political scientists examine is partisan polarization, which happens when support for a political figure or position differentiates itself along political party
lines.
Popular media definitions and uses of "polarization" tend to be looser.
. Some point to Jim Jeffords
' resignation from the Republican Party in 2001 because of his feelings that the party was becoming increasingly polarized and that moderate voices were getting shut out. Former President Bill Clinton
said on the 9/18/06 Daily Show
that he thinks the Republican Party believes in polarization.
Others, such as Constitution Party
analyst Michael Peroutka
, take the view that the U.S. political parties themselves are actually quite close in terms of actual policy and party leadership. Former Minnesota governor
and pro-wrestler
Jesse Ventura
stated on the CNN
network The Joy Behar Show
, "Both of these parties are like pro-wrestling. On the camera, they tell you they hate each other and they're gonna destroy each other. Behind the scenes, they're working together, they're cozying with each other, they go to dinner, and they cut deals. And that's what they...but they want the people to believe, 'Aww..they hate each other. Gotta vote one way or the other.'" They say that political rhetoric is polarized in order to create some illusion of policy difference; however, in practice and action, both parties take a similar approach to government. Examples include vast bipartisan and popular support for one side of various supposedly controversial issues; a majority of both major parties in Congress voted to cut taxes in 2001, to authorize use of force in Iraq
in 2002, and to ban partial-birth abortion in 2003. Additionally, since 1948, the Congress and the President—whether Democratic or Republican—have shown the same willingness to grow the size of the Federal Government. Supporters of this theory also say that public opinion has not gone to the extreme; rather, both parties have come closer to the center. Thus, for the average "centrist" voter, it is easier to decide which party/candidate is closest to them. This can be demonstrated in both the 2000
and 2004
Presidential
elections, when the vote was virtually half and half between the two sides. Essentially, both parties are equally desirable to average Americans. However, the two parties do have their differences, such as the 2010 health care package
. The health care bill was voted against by every Republican in the Senate
, yet had greater Democratic support. However, many Democrats also opposed the bill.
While Poole and Rosenthal's NOMINATE scores
(which provide a measure of the ideological ideal points of members of Congress) have established a consensus that the parties in Congress have become polarized, there is a more vigorous discussion in the literature about the nature and cause of polarization in the US electorate. One side (e.g., Fiorina, Abrams, and Pope's "Culture War" in 2005 and their 2008 response in the Journal of Politics
) argues that polarization is almost purely an elite, or "top-down" driven. The other side (e.g., Abramowitz and Saunders 2008, also in the Journal of Politics
) argue that it is a two-way street, but primarily a "bottom-up" phenomenon facilitated by the engaged partisans in the American electorate. Abramowitz has recently released a book that elaborates further on these ideas.
in those provinces where the social democratic New Democratic Party
has formed government. The Liberals generally portray themselves as a party that ought to appeal to moderate voters, but where provincial elections have become "two way races" between the NDP and the respective Progressive Conservative Party
or equivalent, moderate voters have often been persuaded to abandon the Liberals in hopes of preventing one of the two larger parties from winning, often causing a disastrous result for the Liberals. This has most frequently happened in Saskatchewan
, Manitoba
and (in the past) in British Columbia
. The federal Liberal Party has not managed to avoid such a fate; in Canada's most recent federal election, left-leaning voters were divided amongst the Liberal Party and the NDP allowing the first Federal Conservative majority government in over 20 years.
in the early years after the First World War
, when there was support for political parties on the extreme left such as the Spartacists
, and also the extreme right, such as the Nazi Party. This was around the time of the Great Depression, people were out jobs and food so they turned to communism and fascism. Fascists promised to force jobs into the economy, while communists promised make everyone equal and have a job.
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, polarization (or polarisation) is the process by which the public opinion divides and goes to the extremes. It can also refer to when the extreme factions of a political party gain dominance in a party. In either case moderate
Moderate
In politics and religion, a moderate is an individual who is not extreme, partisan or radical. In recent years, political moderates has gained traction as a buzzword....
voices often lose power and influence as a consequence.
Definitions of polarization
The term "polarization" comes from political sciencePolitical science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
. There, it is a measure of the electorate's response to a political figure or position; it is not an assessment of, or a value judgment upon, a political figure. It does not mean that a political figure is necessarily unelectable. Political figures can receive a polarized response from the public through actions of their own, through historical trends or accidents, or due to external forces such as media bias
Media bias
Media bias refers to the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the...
.
Political scientists principally measure polarization in two ways. One is "plain" or generic polarization, often referred to as popular polarization, which happens when opinions diverge towards poles of distribution or intensity. Political scientists use several kinds of metrics to measure popular polarization, such as the American National Election Studies' "feeling thermometer" polls, which measure the degree of opinion about a political figure.
The other form that political scientists examine is partisan polarization, which happens when support for a political figure or position differentiates itself along political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
lines.
Popular media definitions and uses of "polarization" tend to be looser.
United States
In recent times, some Americans, such as American Demographics magazine editor John McManus, have seen increasing polarization in the U.S. political systemPolitics of the United States
The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...
. Some point to Jim Jeffords
Jim Jeffords
James Merrill "Jim" Jeffords is a former U.S. Senator from Vermont. He served as a Republican until 2001, when he left the party to become an independent. He retired from the Senate in 2006.-Background:...
' resignation from the Republican Party in 2001 because of his feelings that the party was becoming increasingly polarized and that moderate voices were getting shut out. Former President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
said on the 9/18/06 Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
that he thinks the Republican Party believes in polarization.
Others, such as Constitution Party
Constitution Party (United States)
The Constitution Party is a paleoconservative political party in the United States. It was founded as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party by Howard Philips in 1991. Phillips was the party's candidate in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 presidential elections...
analyst Michael Peroutka
Michael Peroutka
Michael Anthony Peroutka is a Maryland lawyer, the founder of the Institute on the Constitution. He once held a position in the United States Department of Health and Human Services and was the Constitution Party candidate for president in 2004. He is co-host of The American View radio...
, take the view that the U.S. political parties themselves are actually quite close in terms of actual policy and party leadership. Former Minnesota governor
Governor of Minnesota
The Governor of Minnesota is the chief executive of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty different people have been governors of the state, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. Alexander Ramsey, the first territorial...
and pro-wrestler
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura
James George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, Navy UDT veteran, former SEAL reservist, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...
stated on the CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
network The Joy Behar Show
The Joy Behar Show
The Joy Behar Show is a news program and talk show that premiered on HLN on September 29, 2009. The show is hosted by Joy Behar, who is one of the five co-hosts of The View. The show originally aired in the 9:00PM EST slot and 8:00PM CST, but was moved to 10:00PM EST in January 2011...
, "Both of these parties are like pro-wrestling. On the camera, they tell you they hate each other and they're gonna destroy each other. Behind the scenes, they're working together, they're cozying with each other, they go to dinner, and they cut deals. And that's what they...but they want the people to believe, 'Aww..they hate each other. Gotta vote one way or the other.'" They say that political rhetoric is polarized in order to create some illusion of policy difference; however, in practice and action, both parties take a similar approach to government. Examples include vast bipartisan and popular support for one side of various supposedly controversial issues; a majority of both major parties in Congress voted to cut taxes in 2001, to authorize use of force in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
in 2002, and to ban partial-birth abortion in 2003. Additionally, since 1948, the Congress and the President—whether Democratic or Republican—have shown the same willingness to grow the size of the Federal Government. Supporters of this theory also say that public opinion has not gone to the extreme; rather, both parties have come closer to the center. Thus, for the average "centrist" voter, it is easier to decide which party/candidate is closest to them. This can be demonstrated in both the 2000
United States presidential election, 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
and 2004
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
Presidential
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
elections, when the vote was virtually half and half between the two sides. Essentially, both parties are equally desirable to average Americans. However, the two parties do have their differences, such as the 2010 health care package
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law is the principal health care reform legislation of the 111th United States Congress...
. The health care bill was voted against by every Republican in the Senate
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, since senate means the assembly of the eldest and wiser members of the society and ruling class...
, yet had greater Democratic support. However, many Democrats also opposed the bill.
While Poole and Rosenthal's NOMINATE scores
NOMINATE (scaling method)
NOMINATE is a multidimensional scaling method developed by political scientists Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal in the early 1980s to analyze...
(which provide a measure of the ideological ideal points of members of Congress) have established a consensus that the parties in Congress have become polarized, there is a more vigorous discussion in the literature about the nature and cause of polarization in the US electorate. One side (e.g., Fiorina, Abrams, and Pope's "Culture War" in 2005 and their 2008 response in the Journal of Politics
Journal of Politics
The Journal of Politics is a peer-reviewed academic journal of political science established in 1939 and published quarterly by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Southern Political Science Association....
) argues that polarization is almost purely an elite, or "top-down" driven. The other side (e.g., Abramowitz and Saunders 2008, also in the Journal of Politics
Journal of Politics
The Journal of Politics is a peer-reviewed academic journal of political science established in 1939 and published quarterly by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Southern Political Science Association....
) argue that it is a two-way street, but primarily a "bottom-up" phenomenon facilitated by the engaged partisans in the American electorate. Abramowitz has recently released a book that elaborates further on these ideas.
Canada
Polarization has had drastic consequences for the centrist Liberal partiesLiberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
in those provinces where the social democratic New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
has formed government. The Liberals generally portray themselves as a party that ought to appeal to moderate voters, but where provincial elections have become "two way races" between the NDP and the respective Progressive Conservative Party
Conservative parties in Canada
This is a list of conservative parties in Canada. There are a number of conservative parties in Canada, a country that has traditionally been dominated by two political parties, one liberal and one conservative.-Progressive Conservatives:...
or equivalent, moderate voters have often been persuaded to abandon the Liberals in hopes of preventing one of the two larger parties from winning, often causing a disastrous result for the Liberals. This has most frequently happened in Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and (in the past) in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. The federal Liberal Party has not managed to avoid such a fate; in Canada's most recent federal election, left-leaning voters were divided amongst the Liberal Party and the NDP allowing the first Federal Conservative majority government in over 20 years.
Polarization in other national politics
An example of polarization was in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in the early years after the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, when there was support for political parties on the extreme left such as the Spartacists
Spartacist League
The Spartacus League was a left-wing Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. The League was named after Spartacus, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic...
, and also the extreme right, such as the Nazi Party. This was around the time of the Great Depression, people were out jobs and food so they turned to communism and fascism. Fascists promised to force jobs into the economy, while communists promised make everyone equal and have a job.