Is political polarization worse than it's been in the past?
Yes, by multiple measurable standards, political polarization in the United States is worse now than it has been for most of the past century, particularly since the mid-20th century, though it is not unprecedented in American history and differs in character from earlier peaks like the Civil War era.[1][2]
Polarization has two main forms: ideological/issue polarization (disagreement on policies and values) and affective polarization (emotional dislike or distrust of the other side). Both elite (politicians/Congress) and mass (public) levels show clear increases in recent decades.
Elite/Congressional Polarization
DW-NOMINATE scores (which scale lawmakers’ roll-call votes on a liberal-conservative dimension, comparable over time) show Democrats and Republicans farther apart ideologically than at any point in the past 50 years. Overlap between the parties has essentially vanished: since the early 2000s, there has been virtually no ideological common ground in the House or Senate (e.g., the least liberal Democrat is more liberal than the least conservative Republican).[2][2]
Historically, congressional polarization was high in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (post-Reconstruction/Gilded Age), declined through the mid-20th century (partly due to conservative Southern Democrats creating more bipartisanship, often on racial issues), and has risen sharply since the 1970s—reaching post-Reconstruction highs and levels often described as the worst since the Civil War/Reconstruction era.[4][5][6] The mid-20th-century “consensus” era was less polarized partly because major parties did not fully challenge segregation.
Public/Mass Polarization
Historical Context and Caveats
America has always had deep divisions—Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans, slavery and sectionalism leading to the Civil War, the 1960s (Vietnam, civil rights, cultural upheaval), etc. There was no prolonged golden age of unity.[13] The Civil War involved actual secession, mass combat, and hundreds of thousands of deaths over fundamental questions of slavery and union; today’s divides, while intense (with rising political violence, distrust of institutions/elections, and “pernicious” levels rare among wealthy democracies), have not reached that scale of organized conflict.[1][14]
Differences today include:
Polarization contributes to gridlock, declining trust, difficulty addressing issues like debt, and risks to democratic norms, but it is not inevitable or irreversible, and public views are often less extreme or tribal than elite/media portrayals suggest.[15][16] Measures vary by definition (elites vs. masses; issues vs. feelings), and some recent data show stabilization.
In short, relative to the post-WWII era and much of the late 20th century, yes—polarization is substantially worse on both elite and mass metrics. Relative to the full sweep of U.S. history, it ranks among the higher periods but is distinct from the Civil War catastrophe. Data from sources like Voteview/DW-NOMINATE, Pew Research, ANES, and academic clustering studies consistently support the recent surge.
Citations (16)
- https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/us-democrat-republican-partisan-polarization/629925/
Backs: “Yes, by multiple measurable standards, political polarization in the United States is worse now than it has been for most of the past century, particularly since the mid-20th century, though it is not unprecedented in American history and differs in character from earlier peaks like the Civil War era.”
- https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/
Backs: “Yes, by multiple measurable standards, political polarization in the United States is worse now than it has been for most of the past century, particularly since the mid-20th century, though it is not unprecedented in American history and differs in character from earlier peaks like the Civil War era.”
- https://pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/
Backs: “Southern conservatives moved from Democrats to Republicans; the Democratic caucus became more diverse and urban/liberal.”
- https://www.amacad.org/publication/daedalus/party-polarization-congress
Backs: “Historically, congressional polarization was high in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (post-Reconstruction/Gilded Age), declined through the mid-20th century (partly due to conservative Southern Democrats creating more bipartisanship, often on racial issues), and has risen sharply since the 1970s—reaching…”
- https://voteviewblog.com/2015/07/11/an-update-on-house-and-senate-polarization/
Backs: “Historically, congressional polarization was high in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (post-Reconstruction/Gilded Age), declined through the mid-20th century (partly due to conservative Southern Democrats creating more bipartisanship, often on racial issues), and has risen sharply since the 1970s—reaching…”
- https://today.usc.edu/political-polarization-at-its-worst-since-the-civil-war-2/
Backs: “Historically, congressional polarization was high in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (post-Reconstruction/Gilded Age), declined through the mid-20th century (partly due to conservative Southern Democrats creating more bipartisanship, often on racial issues), and has risen sharply since the 1970s—reaching…”
- https://phys.org/news/2026-02-political-division-surged-onward.html
Backs: “The U.S. is an outlier globally for its evenly sized left/right clusters.”
- https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/us-political-polarization-exploded-since-2008-largely-due-to-a-shift-on-the-left/
Backs: “The U.S. is an outlier globally for its evenly sized left/right clusters.”
- https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/political-division-united-states
Backs: “The U.S. is an outlier globally for its evenly sized left/right clusters.”
- https://goodauthority.org/news/americans-views-of-the-opposite-party-have-declined-even-further/
Backs: “The U.S. has seen one of the largest increases among advanced democracies.”
- https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/working-paper/cross-country-trends-affective-polarization
Backs: “The U.S. has seen one of the largest increases among advanced democracies.”
- https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2017/10/05/the-partisan-divide-on-political-values-grows-even-wider/
Backs: “Pew data show average partisan gaps on core values (government aid, race, immigration, etc.) roughly doubled from ~15 points in 1994 to ~36 points by the mid-2010s, dwarfing other divides.”
- https://archive.is/2026.07.05-104443/https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/05/politics/trump-july-4-america-250-civil-war-analysis
Backs: “Democratic-Republicans, slavery and sectionalism leading to the Civil War, the 1960s (Vietnam, civil rights, cultural upheaval), etc. There was no prolonged golden age of unity.”
- https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/05/politics/trump-july-4-america-250-civil-war-analysis
Backs: “There was no prolonged golden age of unity.The Civil War involved actual secession, mass combat, and hundreds of thousands of deaths over fundamental questions of slavery and union; today’s divides, while intense (with rising political violence, distrust of institutions/elections, and “pernicious” levels rare among…”
- https://fortune.com/2025/11/13/38-trillion-national-debt-political-polarization-barry-eichengreen/
Backs: “Polarization contributes to gridlock, declining trust, difficulty addressing issues like debt, and risks to democratic norms, but it is not inevitable or irreversible, and public views are often less extreme or tribal than elite/media portrayals suggest.”
- https://news.umich.edu/beyond-the-great-divide-what-we-really-know-about-political-polarization/
Backs: “Polarization contributes to gridlock, declining trust, difficulty addressing issues like debt, and risks to democratic norms, but it is not inevitable or irreversible, and public views are often less extreme or tribal than elite/media portrayals suggest.”