In recent years, Congress has become increasingly polarized in terms of partisanship. The definition of partisan polarization is the separation of the two major parties as they move towards more severe issue positions. In other words, the members of Congress – both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate – tend to be either extremely liberal (corresponding to the Democratic party), or extremely conservative (corresponding to the Republican party). There are currently few members of the U.S. Congress that consider themselves to be moderates. Political scientists and journalists alike have speculated on why this phenomenon is occurring now, and some theories claim that this polarization is a return to the “natural” state of government,
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This current situation is not the first instance of Congress being increasingly polarized. Han and Brady argue that this current trend of increasing partisan polarization in Congress is actually just a return to the natural state of the government. Their research involved counting how many Republicans are more liberal than the 10% most conservative Democrats, and vice versa. They found that until World War Two (WWII), there was almost no overlap in these two categories. There was a brief spike in overlap to almost 50% in the decades following WWII. However, from the 1980s onwards, there has been a decline back to the “natural” order, that is, the original polarized state of Congress (Han and Brady, 2007). Hetherington summarizes it with, “[a]lthough elites polarized by party may seem new because the post-Second World War era was atypically consensual, it is more the norm” (Hetherington 2009, 415). Take “elites” here to mean House members and Senators. WWII had a tremendous effect on both the U.S. government and the U.S. public. The research cited above suggests that the actual event of WWII and the fall out from the effects of the war created a temporary and unstable depolarization of Congress. Only now is the U.S. recovering from this. Although WWII may seem like a long time ago, in comparison to the 300 years of the USA’s …show more content…
In previous decades, U.S. citizens had little choice about what to watch on television – everybody watched the same news shows and had access to the same information. Now, there is a plethora of shows available every night. Several studies show that people who hold more liberal beliefs seek out more liberal media, and people who hold more conservative beliefs seek out more conservative media – media that reinforces their current political beliefs. Meanwhile, those people that consider themselves to be moderates, and more likely, those who are not interested in U.S. politics, often choose to completely forego political news. The public push for more extreme media, and the more extreme media may be influencing Congress (Levendusky, 2014). It’s a chain reaction from the people to the government. “While partisan media only reach a small segment of the public, because that segment is more extreme and engaged, they have an outsized political role” (Levendusky 2013, 612). The energetic nature of the small extreme groups of people can push potential House members and Senators to take more extreme positions on issues, and they are more likely to elect these people into power – and therefore polarizing Congress (Levendusky
This current situation is not the first instance of Congress being increasingly polarized. Han and Brady argue that this current trend of increasing partisan polarization in Congress is actually just a return to the natural state of the government. Their research involved counting how many Republicans are more liberal than the 10% most conservative Democrats, and vice versa. They found that until World War Two (WWII), there was almost no overlap in these two categories. There was a brief spike in overlap to almost 50% in the decades following WWII. However, from the 1980s onwards, there has been a decline back to the “natural” order, that is, the original polarized state of Congress (Han and Brady, 2007). Hetherington summarizes it with, “[a]lthough elites polarized by party may seem new because the post-Second World War era was atypically consensual, it is more the norm” (Hetherington 2009, 415). Take “elites” here to mean House members and Senators. WWII had a tremendous effect on both the U.S. government and the U.S. public. The research cited above suggests that the actual event of WWII and the fall out from the effects of the war created a temporary and unstable depolarization of Congress. Only now is the U.S. recovering from this. Although WWII may seem like a long time ago, in comparison to the 300 years of the USA’s …show more content…
In previous decades, U.S. citizens had little choice about what to watch on television – everybody watched the same news shows and had access to the same information. Now, there is a plethora of shows available every night. Several studies show that people who hold more liberal beliefs seek out more liberal media, and people who hold more conservative beliefs seek out more conservative media – media that reinforces their current political beliefs. Meanwhile, those people that consider themselves to be moderates, and more likely, those who are not interested in U.S. politics, often choose to completely forego political news. The public push for more extreme media, and the more extreme media may be influencing Congress (Levendusky, 2014). It’s a chain reaction from the people to the government. “While partisan media only reach a small segment of the public, because that segment is more extreme and engaged, they have an outsized political role” (Levendusky 2013, 612). The energetic nature of the small extreme groups of people can push potential House members and Senators to take more extreme positions on issues, and they are more likely to elect these people into power – and therefore polarizing Congress (Levendusky