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

Whether political polarization is worse today than in the past depends entirely on which era of "the past" you are comparing it to.

If you are comparing today to the last 50 to 60 years, then yes, political polarization is at its worst modern level since researchers began tracking it. However, if you look at the entirety of American history, the country has survived periods of even deeper, more violent division—most notably the Civil War era.

To understand why political divisions feel so intense today, political scientists look at several different dimensions of polarization.

1. Modern Polarization (The Last 50 Years)

In the context of modern history, political polarization in the United States is at record-high levels. Political scientists generally split this into two categories:

•Affective Polarization (Distrust and Dislike): This is the measure of how much members of one political party actively dislike, distrust, and fear members of the other. This has skyrocketed over the past few decades. In the 1970s, everyday Democrats and Republicans generally viewed each other as well-meaning citizens with different ideas. By the 2020s, multiple polls (such as those by the Pew Research Center) showed that a large majority of both Democrats and Republicans view the opposing party not just as wrong, but as "immoral" and a threat to the nation’s well-being.

•Ideological Polarization (Policy Gaps): In Congress, the ideological gap between the average Democrat and the average Republican is wider than it has been at any point since the Reconstruction era in the late 19th century. In the public, the "moderate" middle has shrunk. A landmark study by the University of Cambridge tracked divisions on core political issues and found that the gap between the left and right in the U.S. widened by over 60% since the late 1980s, with most of the acceleration happening after 2008.

Notably, research shows that the U.S. is an outlier. A prominent study from Brown University found that while some other Western democracies have experienced slight increases in polarization, the United States has polarized faster and more deeply over the last 40 years than comparable nations like Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany, or Sweden.

2. The Historical Context: Was It Ever Worse?

While today’s division is historically high for modern times, American history is filled with periods of extreme conflict:

•The Civil War Era (1850s–1860s): This remains the absolute benchmark for American polarization. The country was literally torn apart over the moral and economic institution of slavery and state sovereignty. Families were divided, states seceded, and over 600,000 Americans died. While today's political rhetoric is highly heated, we have not reached the level of systemic, militarized division of the 1860s.

•The Gilded Age (Late 19th Century): During the late 1800s, Congressional voting patterns were just as polarized as they are today. The nation was deeply divided over industrialization, monetary policy (gold vs. silver), and immigration. However, this polarization was largely economic and did not thoroughly consume citizens' personal identities in the way today's divisions do.

•The Mid-20th Century "Anomaly" (1950s–1970s): Part of the reason today's polarization feels so jarring is that the generations alive today grew up in, or were raised by people from, an era of unusually low polarization. In the mid-20th century, the two major parties were not neatly organized by ideology. There were conservative Southern Democrats and liberal Northern Republicans. Because of this overlap, bipartisan compromise in Congress was much easier, creating an "era of consensus" that was actually a historical anomaly.

3. Why Today's Polarization Feels Unique

Even if we are not on the brink of a 19th-century-style civil war, today's polarization has unique, compounding characteristics that make it incredibly difficult to escape:

•"Sorting" of Identities: In the past, a person's political party didn't necessarily tell you their religion, where they lived, what race they were, or what kind of culture they consumed. Today, these identities have "sorted" almost perfectly into two camps. If you know someone’s political party, you can make highly accurate guesses about their geography, religious habits, education level, and cultural tastes. This transforms politics from a debate over policy into an existential battle of "us versus them."

•The Media Environment: The rise of 24-hour partisan cable news, talk radio, and social media algorithms has created powerful echo chambers. These platforms incentivize outrage because anger drives engagement. As a result, Americans are constantly exposed to the most extreme caricatures of the "other side," which fuels the perception that compromise is impossible.

•Asymmetric Shifts: Scholars debate how the parties have shifted. Data on Congressional voting patterns suggests that political elites in the Republican party have shifted more dramatically to the right since the late 20th century. On the other hand, studies focusing on public opinion—such as the Cambridge study—suggest that since 1988, everyday left-leaning Americans have moved significantly further to the left on social and cultural issues, while everyday right-leaning Americans have remained relatively stable in their core positions. Regardless of which direction the movement comes from, the distance between the two sides has steadily increased.

Summary

If you compare today to the mid-to-late 20th century, political polarization is unquestionably worse than it has been in living memory. The mutual animosity between everyday Democrats and Republicans has reached levels not seen in over a century. However, the U.S. has navigated similarly perilous divisions before—most notably during the Gilded Age and the Civil War. Whether our modern institutions can adapt to and de-escalate this current wave of identity-driven division remains one of the most critical questions of our time.

Citations (10)

1nih.govGovernment
nih.gov
Backs: “If you are comparing today to the last 50 to 60 years, then yes, political polarization is at its worst modern level since researchers began tracking it.”
2democracyproject.orgNonprofits and think tanks
democracyproject.org
Backs: “However, if you look at the entirety of American history, the country has survived periods of even deeper, more violent division—most notably the Civil War era.”
3brown.eduAcademic
brown.edu
Backs: “Affective Polarization (Distrust and Dislike): This is the measure of how much members of one political party actively dislike, distrust, and fear members of the other. This has skyrocketed over the past few decades.”
4wikipedia.orgEncyclopedias and referencequality 0.83
wikipedia.org
Backs: “Affective Polarization (Distrust and Dislike): This is the measure of how much members of one political party actively dislike, distrust, and fear members of the other. This has skyrocketed over the past few decades.”
5syr.eduAcademic
syr.edu
Backs: “By the 2020s, multiple polls (such as those by the Pew Research Center) showed that a large majority of both Democrats and Republicans view the opposing party not just as wrong, but as "immoral" and a threat to the nation’s well-being. Ideological Polarization (Policy Gaps): In Congress, the ideological gap between…”
6usc.eduAcademic
usc.edu
Backs: “Ideological Polarization (Policy Gaps): In Congress, the ideological gap between the average Democrat and the average Republican is wider than it has been at any point since the Reconstruction era in the late 19th century. In the public, the "moderate" middle has shrunk.”
7gallup.comCompanies
gallup.com
Backs: “In the public, the "moderate" middle has shrunk. A landmark study by the University of Cambridge tracked divisions on core political issues and found that the gap between the left and right in the U.S.”
8cam.ac.ukAcademic
cam.ac.uk
Backs: “A landmark study by the University of Cambridge tracked divisions on core political issues and found that the gap between the left and right in the U.S. widened by over 60% since the late 1980s, with most of the acceleration happening after 2008. Notably, research shows that the U.S.”
9brookings.eduNonprofits and think tanks
brookings.edu
Backs: “The country was literally torn apart over the moral and economic institution of slavery and state sovereignty. Families were divided, states seceded, and over 600,000 Americans died.”
10facinghistory.orgNonprofits and think tanks
facinghistory.org
Backs: “This transforms politics from a debate over policy into an existential battle of "us versus them.". The Media Environment: The rise of 24-hour partisan cable news, talk radio, and social media algorithms has created powerful echo chambers. These platforms incentivize outrage because anger drives engagement.”