Unity and Division

Abstract

A symposium on partisan and ideological polarization in United States concludes this issue of Polity. The guest editor, Jeff Ladewig, invited half a dozen specialists on American politics to compose original thought pieces on contemporary partisan tensions. Ladewig, in his introduction, recalls the famous 1950 report by an American Political Science Association committee on political parties, in which a group of eminent scholars, led by E.E. Schattschneider, urged sharper policy and ideological differences between America’s major parties. The contributors to the symposium then assess evidence bearing on reports of a recent resurgence in partisan and ideological polarization in America. The two first articles, by Christopher Hare and Keith Poole and by Tracy Sulkin and Carly Schmitt, trace the behavior of members of Congress over time, and document signs of increasing polarization. The next article, by Monika McDermott and Cornell Bulcher, looks at current differences in racial attitudes among voters for the two major parties. The symposium closes with a provocative discussion by David Jones on how the rise of inter-party polarization has, ironically, coincided with citizens’ ability to differentiate parties in America and to judge each congressional party’s legislative performances and priorities. Maybe polarization is not all bad, Jones suggests, because citizen awareness of party differences has soared, which arguably has enhanced accountability of rulers to the ruled.