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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Political polarization among Americans has grown rapidly in the last 40 years—more than in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia or Germany—a phenomenon possibly due to increased racial division, the rise of partisan cable news and changes in the composition of the Democratic and Republican parties.
That's according to new research co-authored by Jesse Shapiro, a professor of political economy at Brown University. The study, conducted alongside Stanford University economists Levi Boxell and Matthew Gentzkow, was released on Monday, Jan. 20, as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.
In the study, Shapiro and colleagues present the first ever multi-nation evidence on long-term trends in "affective polarization"—a phenomenon in which citizens feel more negatively toward other political parties than toward their own. They found that in the U.S., affective polarization has increased more dramatically since the late 1970s than in the eight other countries they examined—the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden.
"A lot of analysis on polarization is focused on the U.S., so we thought it could be interesting to put the U.S. in context and see whether it is part of a global trend or whether it looks more exceptional," Shapiro said. "We found that the trend in the U.S. is indeed exceptional."
Using data from four decades of public opinion surveys conducted in the nine countries, the researchers used a so-called "feeling thermometer" to rate attitudes on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 reflected no negative feelings toward other parties. They found that in 1978, the average American rated the members of their own political party 27 points higher than members of the other major party. By 2016, Americans were rating their own party 45.9 points higher than the other party, on average. In other words, negative feelings toward members of the other party compared to one's own party increased by an average of 4.8 points per decade.
The researchers found that polarization had also risen in Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland in the last 40 years, but to a lesser extent. In the U.K., Australia, Germany, Norway and Sweden, polarization decreased.
More information: Levi Boxell et al, Cross-Country Trends in Affective Polarization, (2020). DOI: 10.3386/w26669
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @07:05PM (10 children)
Missing the gender division too [economist.com] Women vote for the party that'll provide for them. Men vote for the party that enables them to be the provider.
(Score: 3, Informative) by barbara hudson on Monday January 27 2020, @07:27PM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @07:59PM
Why do you think it's educational / employment factors influencing the political split? The innate, evolutionary behaviour of men and women has not changed. Neither am I convinced that dying alone with a cat is going to be a successful, long term marketing strategy for career women.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday January 27 2020, @07:55PM (7 children)
Let's see: The Democratic Party explicitly believes that women should be equal to men socially, legally and professionally, and want strong government protection against rape and sexual assault. The Republican Party is led by a guy who by all appearances believes that women exist to provide sexual pleasure, baby-making, and unpaid domestic labor for men, and has committed a couple dozen rapes and sexual assaults that we know of.
I'm not convinced that the gender divide is about women wanting the government to provide for them, or men wanting to be "the provider".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @08:10PM (1 child)
You forgot to add that anyone who votes Republican is a LITERAL Nazi.
That would complete the post.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @12:10AM
I can only assume that the irony was made too subtly for half the readers in the parent post. I'll try better next time!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday January 27 2020, @08:16PM
The allegations don't even need to be true for this statement to be true.
If the PERCEPTION is that they're true it can very well lead to the voting behavior you suggest.
And the dramatic shift we're seeing where women are fleeing the party [thehill.com], and that started right after Trump got elected, lends this hypothesis credence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @08:18PM (3 children)
After all the whinging from conservstice shit posters about being modded troll and they do it to you. Some true grit they have /s
(Score: 3, Touché) by Thexalon on Monday January 27 2020, @08:59PM (2 children)
Meh: Not the first time I've seen it in the last week. They must think it means they're right or something.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @09:50PM (1 child)
I am correct. [moneyweek.com] Statistically men support tax cuts while women support welfare spending. This is neither controversial or unexpected.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @11:05PM
The discussion moved off your point and was only about the troll mod.
There is likely truth to both of your points, rarely is there any single issue/reason behind choices.