Political Polarization

In Brief

Budget and debt debates, filibusters over judicial nominees, and partisan posturing in Washington occur amid growing concerns about heated political rhetoric across America. Brookings experts have tracked and examined how growing political polarization has become embedded in American society with results that are damaging to the political process.

Opponents of Obama health care legislation rally on the sidewalk during the third and final day of legal arguments over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the Supreme Court in Washington (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst).

Blog Post

The Affordable Care Act: From Hiccups to Repeal

May 15, 2013, Elaine Kamarck

With House Republicans prepared to cast their 37th vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, Elaine Kamarck comments on this historic piece of legislation and its current progress.

Recent Activity

Refine by: U.S. Politics | Politics and Elections | U.S. Congress | Political Campaigns

Past Event

Implementing the Affordable Care Act: Organizational and Political Challenges

May 20, 2013
In the News

Today, committees have lost much of their autonomy to party leaders. As a result, investigations are often used in periods of divided government as a partisan tool to club the administration and its supporters. More often than not, committee investigations become arenas for majority party “message politics” — contests designed to score political points rather than to identify problems or to generate solutions that can garner bipartisan support. The higher the partisanship in Congress, the lower its committees seem to fall.
May 9, 2013, Sarah A. Binder, New York Times
Opinion | Forbes

Free Trade Is Not Quite President Obama's Neglected Stepchild, But...

May 1, 2013, Bill Frenzel
In the News

Sadly, divided party government, which we have because of the Republican House, in a time of extreme partisan polarization, is a formula for inaction and absolutist opposition politics, not for problem solving.
April 26, 2013, Thomas E. Mann, Moyers & Company
Interview | Moyers & Company

Why Congress is Failing Us

April 26, 2013, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein
Opinion | The Washington Post

Gridlock is No Way to Govern

April 19, 2013, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein
Blog Post

Defeat of Toomey-Manchin: Neither Cloture nor Closure for Victims of Gun Violence

April 18, 2013, John Hudak | comments
Opinion | The Monkey Cage

The Do-little House of Representatives: Why so Little legislating?

April 4, 2013, Sarah A. Binder
Blog Post

When India’s Foreign Policy Is Domestic

April 2, 2013, Teresita C. Schaffer and Howard Schaffer | comments
Paper

Policy Leadership and the Blame Trap: Seven Strategies for Avoiding Policy Stalemate

March 29, 2013, R. Kent Weaver