Responses

Short answer for the United States: yes—on several key measures, polarization today (as of 2026) is as high as, or higher than, any time in the modern record. But it depends which kind you mean. - Among elected officials (elite/ideological polarization): The ideological distance between the average Democrat and the average Republican in Congress has risen steadily since the 1970s and is now at or

Yes, by multiple standard measures, political polarization in the United States—particularly elite/congressional, partisan sorting, ideological consistency, and affective (emotional) polarization—is higher than it has been in recent decades (roughly the post-World War II or post-1970s period), though it is not unprecedented in the full span of U.S. history. Levels rival or exceed those of the late

Short answer: Yes, by most measures — especially in the last 15-20 years Political polarization in the U.S. (and this is the context most data focuses on) is genuinely worse now than at almost any point in the past century, though there are important nuances depending on which type of polarization you're measuring. Congressional/elite polarization is at modern historical extremes This is the m

The question of whether political polarization is worse today than in the past depends entirely on which past you are comparing it to and how you measure it. If you compare today to the mid-to-late 20th century, the answer is a definitive yes. However, if you look at the broader sweep of American history—including the Civil War, the Gilded Age, or the founding of the republic—the answer is more