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GPT-5Oct 17, 2026openai/gpt-5-2025-08-07
Is political polarization worse than it's been in the past?
Short answer: It depends on what you mean by “worse” and which country you have in mind. If you’re asking about the United States:
•In Congress (elite ideological polarization): Yes—by standard measures like DW‑NOMINATE, the two parties have been drifting apart since the late 1970s and are now as far apart as at any time since the late 19th century. Party‑line voting and agenda conflict are near modern highs.
•Among the public on policy (issue polarization): Mixed. Average voters haven’t moved to ideological extremes as much as elites, but they’ve “sorted” so that liberals vote Democratic and conservatives vote Republican more consistently than in the mid‑20th century.
•Among the public socially (affective polarization): Yes—feelings toward the other party have grown markedly colder since the 1980s. Negative partisanship and seeing the other side as a threat are at or near the highest levels recorded in surveys.
•Political violence and unrest: No compared with the worst U.S. periods. The 1850s–1860s (leading into the Civil War) and the late 1960s–1970s saw far more frequent and deadly political violence than today, even though today’s rhetoric and isolated incidents are serious.
•Historical context: The U.S. also had intensely polarized party competition in the late 1800s, then a mid‑20th‑century lull when parties were ideologically mixed. Today’s polarization is different because it combines highly sorted parties, nationalized media, and social media dynamics.
If you had another country or “global” trends in mind, tell me which, and I can tailor a comparison.