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posted by janrinok on Monday January 27 2020, @05:46PM   Printer-friendly

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


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by istartedi on Tuesday January 28 2020, @12:18AM (4 children)

    by istartedi (123) on Tuesday January 28 2020, @12:18AM (#949689) Journal

    I'm not sure why parent is currently modded "Troll". One of the things I found most disgusting about the 2004 presidential election was that *both* candidates were Skull and Bones men. I was going around saying, "What's it going to be? Our Skull and Bones man or theirs?". I don't think the Founding Fathers envisioned a process where people are groomed for high office from the time they're born. That's royalty. It's what they rebelled against.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday January 28 2020, @01:41AM (3 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 28 2020, @01:41AM (#949731) Journal

    I'm not sure why parent is currently modded "Troll"...
    That's royalty. It's what they rebelled against.

    Let me try to explain.

    Because royalty is not inherently bad just as a presidential republic is not inherently good.
    Let me exemplify: Norway/Japan/etc. are not less democratic even if they are monarchies; just the same, graduating "XYZ University" isn't inherently bad.

    Letting aside the confusion (or intention to confuse?), the (G)P is dangerously close of saying "Graduate whatever University and you are automatically Poisson Ivy and an enemy of the people"

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @03:33AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @03:33AM (#949818)

      Skull and Bones didn't mean graduating from an Ivy league school. It is a very exclusionary club made up of the hereditarily rich and powerful, that operates within the Ivy league. You can't get into it just by applying, or being smart, or rich. You have to be part of the 'right' people.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday January 28 2020, @03:49AM (1 child)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 28 2020, @03:49AM (#949828) Journal

        Skull and Bones didn't mean graduating from an Ivy league school. It is a very exclusionary club made up of the hereditarily rich and powerful, that operates within the Ivy league.

        With thanks for the "translation", I don't see any reference to "Skull and Bones" in the comment that was moderated as Troll, just a blanket "The world is better without the graduates of Brown, Stanford or a XYZ University".

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        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @06:20AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @06:20AM (#949936)

          That was so far up the page I missed it. Was referring to istartedi reply where he objects to both candidates being S&B. I thought you were objecting to him comparing S&B to royalty.