Is political polarization worse than it's been in the past?

Leans yesSays it is contested

This is a genuinely debated question among historians and political scientists, and the answer depends a lot on what you're measuring.

Reasons to think it's more severe now (at least in the US context):

•Legislative gridlock and straight-ticket voting are at historic highs—there's very little cross-party cooperation in Congress compared to, say, the 1960s-80s

•"Affective polarization"—dislike and distrust of the opposing party's voters, not just their policies—has risen sharply since the 1990s according to survey data

•Geographic and social sorting means fewer Americans have close friends or family across party lines, and fewer live in politically mixed communities

•Media fragmentation lets people inhabit largely separate informational realities

Reasons for caution about "worst ever" claims:

•The US had a literal civil war, plus eras of dueling, caning on the Senate floor, and widespread political violence in the 19th century

•The 1960s-70s saw assassinations, riots, and bombings tied to political causes

•McCarthyism and the Red Scare involved severe repression

•Some "golden age" bipartisanship (mid-20th century) was partly a product of racial segregation suppressing a major axis of conflict—not necessarily healthier, just quieter

A reasonable synthesis: Polarization by elite/legislative behavior and partisan animosity does appear unusually high in the recent record (roughly since the 1990s), even if it hasn't yet produced violence on the scale of the 1860s or 1960s. Political scientists like Ezra Klein and Lilliann Mason have argued the current combination—ideological sorting, media fragmentation, and identity-based tribalism—is distinctive even if not unprecedented in raw hostility.

If you're asking about a specific country or time period, I can get more specific—the US story differs quite a bit from, say, European or Latin American patterns.

Is political polarization worse than it's been in the past?

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