Political Polarization in American Politics

Abstract

Preface Contributors 1. What we know and don't know about our polarized politics-Nolan McCarty How are we polarized? 2. Partisan warfare is the problem-Sean Theriault 3. How U.S. state legislatures are polarized and getting more polarized-Boris Shor 4. Our politics is polarized on more issues than ever before-Thomas Carsey and Geoffrey Layman 5. How politically moderate Americans? Less than it seems-Christopher Hare and Keith Poole 6. Americans aren't polarized, just better sorted-Morris Fiorina and Samuel Abrams 7. Are politicians and activists reliably 'more extreme' than voters? A skeptical perspective- David Broockman 8. Party polarization is making us more prejudiced-Lilliana Mason 9. Politics stops at the water's edge? Not recently-Robert Lieber Why are we polarized? 10. The two key factors behind our polarized politics-Jeff Stonecash 11. American politics is more competitive than ever, and that's making partisanship worse-Frances Lee 12. How race and religion have polarized American voters-Alan Abramowitz 13. How ideological activists constructed our polarized parties-Hans Noel 14. How better educated whites are driving political polarization-Andrew Gelman 15. Are Fox and MSNBC polarizing America?-Matthew Levendusky 16. Why you shouldn't blame polarization on partisan news-Kevin Arceneaux 17. The media make us think we're more polarized than we really are-Matthew Levendusky and Neil Malhotra Polarization Abroad 18. Sure, Congress is polarized. But other legislatures are more so-David Brady 19. Canada is polarizing-and it's because of the parties-Richard Johnston 20. In Britain, polarization could be the solution-Rob Ford What Can Be Done? 21. Our politics may be polarized, but that's nothing new-David Brady and Hahrie Hahn 22. Polarization in Congress has risen sharply. Where is it going next?-Christopher Hare, Keith Poole, and Howard Rosenthal 23. Can young voters break the cycle of polarization?-Robert Shapiro 24. How to fix our polarized politics? Strengthen political parties-Richard Pildes 25. Our political parties are network, not fragmented-Seth Masket 26. Gridlock is bad. The alternative is worse-Morris Fiorina