One Nation . . . Indivisible? Polarization in America Today

America is an increasingly divided nation. Although politics has always been an invested process that had the potential to bring out the worst in any person, we see a different type of venom present today. We have not returned to an era of duals, but we have seen frequent breaches in decorum even in our most hallowed halls. Americans no longer seem willing or able to look past politics to assure the common good. Without getting into data, theories, or rebuttals, let us just consider America today and in recent years. In this issue of American Behavioral Scientist, I present six articles that help us gain a fuller understanding of polarization in the American polis and hopefully begin to demonstrate why American politics have become increasingly less civil in recent years. Using a variety of methodological approaches and making significantly different theoretical contributions, they help us in moving beyond the now-tired question of whether there is measurable polarization within American society. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright holder.]