CrossWorks

Parties, Partisanship, and Polarization in the Twenty-first Century

Henry M. Hogan Campus Center

For much of the Twentieth century, political scientists were concerned with the decline of party—a sense that traditional party organizations had become less effective at mobilizing voters, generating collective action among politicians, and defining clear policy alternatives. Recently, however, political scientists have come to be more concerned with political polarization—a sense that the party divide has become increasingly deep and frighteningly hostile. What is it about contemporary party politics that divides us so sharply? How is it that, after years of a decline of party affiliation, voters seem more entrenched in their political identity than ever before? In this class, we will briefly review the “decline of party” literature, look at the ways the work of the parties gets done in the Twenty-first century, and then look at some of the contrasting explanations of party polarization.