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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @09:46PM (9 children)
You might have first past the post, but you also have a Prime Minister instead of the US having a President with king-like power.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday January 27 2020, @09:54PM (5 children)
We also didn't have #NeverHillary, so yeah. Trump or Hillary was like Idiot or Douche-bag: not really a choice.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday January 28 2020, @12:53AM (4 children)
More like warmongering-bloodSoaked-psychopath vs. douchebag. We're lucky we got the douche.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @02:53AM (3 children)
Ah yes, thank GOD we got the narcissistic douche who almost kicked off WW3 a few times....
More like thank ALLAH and MOHAMMED that the Iranians know Trump is a crazy piece of shit and didn't up the ante.
Try again you crazy apologist, the only good thing that might come from Trump is a bunch of real reforms to reign in future abuses of power. I guess we should be grateful you're finally starting to realize the reality that is the Trump admin, but I won't hold my breath about you ever taking responsibility for the damage he has caused. Which is why you still say better than Clinton as that lets you stand by your decision and not feel the guilt for the damage he has caused.
Preeeeetty pathetic, but better than another Civil War!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday January 28 2020, @02:56AM (1 child)
Yes -- thank fucking spaghetti monster -- HRC would have succeeded at WWIII for sure. Trump's fucked it up so in fact, we are all better off.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @04:56AM
I do recall Trump making comments about nuking the middle east, also echoed all the time by his supporters. Then he drops the MOAB, doesn't pull out of the ME, and assassinates an Iranian general?
Yeah, so you bet on Mad Dog Trumpen and him being a fuck up is how you try to pretend putting him in office wasn't a total cock up?
The journey to reality is a slow one. I assume you're an older gent from the generation taught that admitting being wrong is a sign of weakness, and weakness is for liberal homosexual commies.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday January 28 2020, @05:29AM
And yet... can you images the consequences of Hillary doing the same and more [youtube.com]?
Now, honestly, tell me you don't feel lucky now,
pun...err, sorry, I take this one back(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Insightful) by NickM on Monday January 27 2020, @10:35PM (2 children)
A Canadian prime minister in a majority government is as powerful as a president thanks to the P.M.O. stronghold on the governing party caucus but in a minority government compromise is the name of the game.
In my opinion, a minority government is a better government: as the checks and balances works!
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @12:09AM (1 child)
IMO the problem with Canadian minority governments is there are too many votes of confidence; too many opportunities for failed legislation to result in an election; after enough of these, people get tired of going to the polls and vote not for who they want but for who they think will get a majority so their votes can stick this time.
I'd much prefer for a failed confidence vote in a minority government to just mean "OK, that didn't work, what additional compromise do we have to make to get more votes for this piece of legislation?" instead of "flush the previous election results down the toilet and start over!"
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @12:56AM
A minority government only fails if it can't pass a budget or if it loses an explicit no-confidence vote, which is similar to a US impeachment vote, and frankly those are rare occasions. It has never been a problem.