As the 2016 presidential election day looms closer, the question arises of whether the mass public has become increasingly divided in values and beliefs. In other words, will citizens on both sides of the political spectrum view the winning candidate as having the nation’s best interests in mind? Scholars disagree whether the mass public in the United States has become increasingly politically polarized over recent decades. According to one school of thought, the American public has not become more polarized. Measures of polarization erroneously conflate citizens’ actions (votes) with ideologies. Votes are not a direct measure of citizens’ issue positions, as votes take into account candidates’ ideologies as well as citizens’ issue positions.
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The literature argues that polarization, measured by Americans’ attitudes towards issues, has not increased over the past few decades (DiMaggio et. al 1998; Evans 2003; Klinkner 2006; Fiorina et. Al 2008). Fiorina et. al confirm that voting is indeed polarized, pointing to a 2004 National Election Pool exit poll that reported about 90% of Americans classified as Republicans voted for George W. Bush, and about 90% of Democrats voted for John Kerry (Fiorina et al. 2008). However, they argue that voting data alone do not provide enough insight into the voters themselves. Votes are based on a comparison between the voters’ and the candidates’ positions. Therefore, one cannot deduce the voter’s position simply based on the vote. Similarly, Jacobson contrasts survey approval ratings of President Bush, US Senators, and state governors to demonstrate that approval ratings depend on the actions of public officials as much as on the political ideologies of the citizens rating them. Bush, a controversial politician, received 20 percent lower approval among Democrats in states where he received the most support than among Republicans in the states where he received the least support. On the other hand, partisan differences among senators and governors are considerably smaller (Jacobson 2006). Evidently, the same voters with the same ideology will vote for and evaluate politicians differently …show more content…
They agree that the Democrat and Republican parties in the electorate have diverged sharply on policy issues and ideology in recent decades (Abramowitz et. al 2008; Adams 1997; Brewer 2005; Layman et. al 2006). Abramowitz et. al claim that, since the 1970s, ideological polarization has increased dramatically among both the mass public in the United States and political elites. They use data from American National Election Studies (NES) and national exit polls to show that individuals are more politically polarized now than they were in previous decades. Beginning in 1982, the NES began to include seven issue questions in almost every survey, which Abramowitz et. al then use to construct a scale of ideological polarization. The data from the scale reveals that citizens have increased in political polarization since the 1980s (Abramowitz et al. 2008). Laymen et. al confirm that the public has become more sharply divided regarding policy dimensions. They contrast data of party positions on social welfare, racial, and cultural issues to show how polarization has increased on these three dimensions from 1972 to 2004 (Layman et. al 2006). Similarly, Adams, using roll call votes on abortion in Congress and public opinion polls from General Social surveys from 1972-94, utilizes the issue of abortion to argue that polarization has increased at both the elite and mass level.
The literature argues that polarization, measured by Americans’ attitudes towards issues, has not increased over the past few decades (DiMaggio et. al 1998; Evans 2003; Klinkner 2006; Fiorina et. Al 2008). Fiorina et. al confirm that voting is indeed polarized, pointing to a 2004 National Election Pool exit poll that reported about 90% of Americans classified as Republicans voted for George W. Bush, and about 90% of Democrats voted for John Kerry (Fiorina et al. 2008). However, they argue that voting data alone do not provide enough insight into the voters themselves. Votes are based on a comparison between the voters’ and the candidates’ positions. Therefore, one cannot deduce the voter’s position simply based on the vote. Similarly, Jacobson contrasts survey approval ratings of President Bush, US Senators, and state governors to demonstrate that approval ratings depend on the actions of public officials as much as on the political ideologies of the citizens rating them. Bush, a controversial politician, received 20 percent lower approval among Democrats in states where he received the most support than among Republicans in the states where he received the least support. On the other hand, partisan differences among senators and governors are considerably smaller (Jacobson 2006). Evidently, the same voters with the same ideology will vote for and evaluate politicians differently …show more content…
They agree that the Democrat and Republican parties in the electorate have diverged sharply on policy issues and ideology in recent decades (Abramowitz et. al 2008; Adams 1997; Brewer 2005; Layman et. al 2006). Abramowitz et. al claim that, since the 1970s, ideological polarization has increased dramatically among both the mass public in the United States and political elites. They use data from American National Election Studies (NES) and national exit polls to show that individuals are more politically polarized now than they were in previous decades. Beginning in 1982, the NES began to include seven issue questions in almost every survey, which Abramowitz et. al then use to construct a scale of ideological polarization. The data from the scale reveals that citizens have increased in political polarization since the 1980s (Abramowitz et al. 2008). Laymen et. al confirm that the public has become more sharply divided regarding policy dimensions. They contrast data of party positions on social welfare, racial, and cultural issues to show how polarization has increased on these three dimensions from 1972 to 2004 (Layman et. al 2006). Similarly, Adams, using roll call votes on abortion in Congress and public opinion polls from General Social surveys from 1972-94, utilizes the issue of abortion to argue that polarization has increased at both the elite and mass level.