[EL] On the term "polarization"

[Gardner, James]

Sorry to post again, but I want to offer a thought developed in the new draft paper<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3656508> to which I linked in my earlier message.  It has to do with the commonplace use of the term "polarization" to describe the relation of the two major parties.  A heavy dose of reading and thinking about authoritarianism convinced me that the term is no longer appropriate, and that it has in fact become misleading.  Here is how I address it in the paper:

Americans have for some time now been wringing their hands about the "polarization" of the two main political parties. The concept of "polarization," however, by definition presupposes a single spectrum along which two polarizing things may both be placed. In the common conceptual apparatus of political science, the relevant spectrum is one running from conventional notions of political liberalism on the left to conventional notions of political conservatism on the right. It is rarely remarked, however - and for most of the last six decades it would have been unnecessary to remark - that this spectrum is located entirely within the bounds of philosophical liberalism. The present question, in contrast, is altogether different: does the concept of "polarization" any longer apply? Has the Republican Party merely moved to the right on a scale that still counts as liberal? Or has it has fallen off the liberal spectrum altogether - has it become, in Paul Krugman's characterization,"an authoritarian regime in waiting"?

At the risk of offending some list members - which is not my intention - I am sorry to say that I answer that question in the affirmative.  The Republican Party in the era of Trump is no longer merely one of two liberal democratic parties competing for votes by positioning itself along a spectrum of fundamentally shared political commitments.  The GOP no longer shares - or at least no longer acts as though it shares - the foundational commitments of liberal democracy.  Thus, I think the term "polarization" is no longer the right term to describe the division between the two parties, though I can't immediately think of a better one.  The choice between the two parties has become a choice between fundamentally distinct ways of life.  If there's a word that compactly describes such a situation, I'd be happy to learn it.

Jim


___________________________
James A. Gardner
Bridget and Thomas Black SUNY Distinguished Professor of Law
Research Professor of Political Science
University at Buffalo School of Law
The State University of New York
Room 514, O'Brian Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
voice: 716-645-3607
fax: 716-645-2064
e-mail: jgard at buffalo.edu<mailto:jgard at buffalo.edu>
www.law.buffalo.edu<http://www.law.buffalo.edu/>
Papers at http://ssrn.com/author=40126

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