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.

U.S. President Barack Obama announces Michael Froman (L) as his nominee for U.S. Trade Representative while in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington (REUTERS/Larry Downing).

Opinion

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

May 1, 2013, Bill Frenzel

Bill Frenzel argues that trade was not a priority during the first Obama administration. However, Frenzel says steps taken by the president to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership along with the recent nomination of Michael Froman as U.S. Trade Representative will help increase U.S. and world trade.

Recent Activity

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

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
In the News

Ironically, Obama tried harder and longer than the results merited to work cooperatively with Republicans in Congress. He has learned painfully that his public embrace of a policy virtually ensures Republican opposition and that intensive negotiations with Republican leaders are likely to lead to a dead end. No bourbon and branch-water laced meetings with Republicans in Congress or pre-emptive compromises with them will induce cooperative behavior.
March 6, 2013, Thomas E. Mann, U.S. News & World Report
In the News

[Obama's tone of his ’08 campaign] hasn’t worked very well, but this is the moment to go back to it, because if he doesn’t, he dooms the rest of his term to squabbling with the Republicans.
February 11, 2013, Alice M. Rivlin, The Daily Beast
Interview | Tunisia Live

Political Islam in Tunisia: A Discussion with Shadi Hamid

February 8, 2013, Shadi Hamid
In the News

[America] has moved so very quickly from the broad argument of the campaign to the great difficulty of governing under a deadline.
November 28, 2012, E.J. Dionne, Jr., New Haven Register
In the News

I suspect that in a war of wills between the parties [in Congress], an intense minority might prevail. After all, the majority typically has a full agenda on its plate and is just as likely to want to move on to other issues [giving in to the filibuster] as it is to battle it out with the minority.
November 17, 2012, Sarah A. Binder, Washington Post
In the News

Forces within the Democratic Party are clearly mobilizing to prevent President Obama from returning to anything resembling the 2011 negotiations. Where [Nancy Pelosi] will come down on that, I don't know.
November 14, 2012, William A. Galston, The Daily Beast
In the News

In the U.S. today, polarization is structural. Members of Congress are worried about their own campaigns over national issues — no one gets punished for standing their ground, they get punished for compromise.
November 14, 2012, Jonathan Rauch, The Madison Times
In the News

No consensus between the parties is in sight after the election, and polarization has been exacerbated, not diminished.
November 10, 2012, Thomas E. Mann, The Arab American News