Political Polarization in the U.S. Division and Its Impact on American Governance

By Emma Thompson Oct. 29, 2025

I - Introduction

“It is undeniable that the United States is now more politically polarized than it was a decade ago” states NBC News, a news division that covers both national and international news on topics of general interest. Research indicates that the views of American presidents have become more polarized by party identification as time passed; rising from Richard Nixon’s 47 point gap between his party’s approval of him and the opposition party’s to 79 points in the case of Donald Trump. Adding on, the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think-tank that informs the public about global issues, found that 72% of Republicans regard Democrats as more immoral, while 63% of Democrats regard Republicans the same way. Stated by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), which publishes peer-reviewed academic research across disciplines; systematic polarization appears more frequently in systems where individuals who identify with a party or ideology tend to hold more extreme views than the rest of the population.

While political polarization is a defining feature of contemporary U.S. politics, similar trends are also noticeable worldwide. According to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), a specialist social science institution; the Brexit referendum in 2016 has left Britain as a politically divided country, resulting in an emergence of distinct factions known as ‘Leavers’ and ‘Remainders’ shaping new perspectives among individuals and towards one another. Against this background, this report seeks to examine the causes of political polarization in the United States and its impact on democratic institutions and society.

II - Structural and Institutional Drivers of Political Polarization

The Brookings Institution, a public policy organization that conducts in-depth social science research, found that the U.S. two-party system is one of the most important structural causes of political polarization. Not only does the two-party system promote a political environment by offering only binary choice, but it also discourages neutral or third-party perspectives while encouraging competition between the two main parties: the Democrats and Republicans. The “winner-takes-all” electoral system has also created an environment where compromise is regarded as political weakness, leading to deepening political divide.

“The process of redrawing electoral districts to favor specific parties, also known as gerrymandering, has also intensified polarization” stated Fred Dews, a Senior Multimedia Project Manager focused on history. He further claims that politicians seek this opportunity as a way to appeal to their respective party’s base rather than broaden their support and pull in moderate voters and opposite parties; they believe that enhancing voter turnout rates for their own party would be more beneficial and cost-effective than reaching out to other party supporters. Due to the fact that gerrymandered districts create safe seats for a certain party, gerrymandering is also a key contributing factor to intensified political polarization, as it eliminates the need for candidates to appeal to moderate voters.

Not quite surprising, a 2023 survey reported by Pew Research showed that 65% of Americans feel exhausted by political divisions and increasingly regard the opposite political party members and supporters as responsible for the country’s decline. This emotional division makes cooperation and compromise almost impossible, further fueling the political divide. However, the effects of political polarization structurally and socially is not solely limited to the hostility between opposing party members. They also extend to a growing distrust of the government. The Cambridge University Press, a publisher affiliated with Cambridge University, published a study in 2023, that showed that the rise of partisan media and usage of social media platforms has created what is known as “echo chambers’, where users are exposed only to views that align with their existing beliefs. The rise of echo chambers accelerated by the social media algorithms has reinforced pre-existing political beliefs, limiting exposure to diverse perspectives and creating this phenomenon of “ideological silos”. 

This is also evident in a 2022 survey reported by the Statista, a global data platform, that 42% of American adults worried about the accuracy of news on social media. More recently, the legal challenges faced by then former President Donald Trump in 2023 have also further deepened partisan divisions. According to the University of Chicago report, a college news report platform reviewed by University of Chicago students and professors, the indictments of Donald Trump may worsen existing levels of polarization and intensify a perception, particularly on political persecution, fueling a belief that government institutions are being used for partisan purposes. Reflecting this distrust, a 2024 Gallup poll, an American analytics and advisory company, found that trust in the U.S. judicial system fell to a record-low 35% amid heightened political polarization. While political polarization continues to deepen ideological divides and increase distrust in the democratic institutions, it is crucial to identify the structural issues such as gerrymandering and the polarization caused by echo chambers to better comprehend the structural causes of political polarization in the United States.

III - Economic Disparities and the Rise of Political Polarization

Research from Nolan McCarty, a political science professor at Princeton University, and his peers, showed that as income inequality rises, the ideological division has grown simultaneously, leading to a legislative gridlock and policy stalemate. The fact that the rise in income inequality leads to legislative gridlock demonstrates that economic disparities hinder effective governance, as polarized lawmakers make it extremely hard to pass bipartisan policies. In addition, the overall economic and demographic changes overall have also contributed to political polarization. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, a department aimed to create the conditions for economic growth and opportunity to all communities, geographic income inequality in the United States has increased by more than 40% since 1980 to 2021. This economic divide not only causes communities with differing economic status to adopt diverging political beliefs, but also makes national unity and bipartisan cooperation extremely challenging. 

Nolan McCarty and his peers state that “[this] model shows that under conditions of economic decline or increasing inequality, some members of the population benefit from adopting a risk-averse, in-group favoring strategy.” As economic decline or increasing economic disparities occur, these eventually pressure individuals to adopt risk-averse behaviors, meaning that they tend to seek security within familiar in-groups rather than engaging with diverse perspectives. This leads to an overall fostering of stronger loyalty to one’s own party as one believes the party provides the financial resources to them, while simultaneously having increasing distrust and hostility toward opposing political groups.  This is also proven by a 2023 report by the Pew Research Center, which showed that 79% of Americans expressed negative sentiments on politics in the U.S., while only 2% had a positive sentiment. Therefore, growing economic disparities in the U.S. have not only deepened political divisions but have also reinforced political loyalty and distrust, making bipartisan unity more difficult.

IV - Conclusion

The political polarization in the United States has deepened due to multiple factors, including structural and economic reasons. Regarding the structural and institutional reasons, the two-party system, gerrymandering, and media-driven echo chambers were the primary causes of ideological divides, making bipartisan unity more difficult. In the case of economic disparities, the rising concern of income inequality and geographic income divergence have further entrenched political polarization by reinforcing in-group loyalty and distrust toward the opposing party.

As a result, political discourse has become more intensive and legislative gridlock has become more frequent. Furthermore, public trust in democratic institutions continues to decline. It is evident that the consequences of polarization extend beyond politics, affecting social interaction, national stability and policy making decisions. While addressing this issue calls for a long process of institutional reforms and economic policies that mitigate income disparity, political polarization will remain a defining feature of American society unless meaningful changes are implemented in an urgent manner.

Works Cited

Baldassarri, Delia, and Andrew Gelman. “Partisans without Constraint: Political Polarization and Trends in American Public Opinion.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2008, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1010098.

Barberá, Pablo. “Social Media, Echo Chambers, and Political Polarization.” Cambridge University Press, edited by Joshua A. Tucker and Nathaniel Persily, Cambridge University Press, 24 Aug. 2020, pp. 34–55, www.cambridge.org/core/books/social-media-and-democracy/social-media-echo-chambers-and-political-polarization/333A5B4DE1B67EFF7876261118CCFE19.

Dews, Fred. “A Primer on Gerrymandering and Political Polarization.” Brookings, 6 July 2017, www.brookings.edu/articles/a-primer-on-gerrymandering-and-political-polarization/.

Gregory, Ted. “What Do Trump Indictments Mean for Election, Democracy? | University of Chicago News.” News.uchicago.edu, 15 Aug. 2023, news.uchicago.edu/story/what-do-trump-indictments-mean-election-democracy.

Hobolt, Sara B. “A Country Divided? Polarisation and Identity after Brexit.” Lse, 14 May 2022, www.lse.ac.uk/government/research/research-projects/a-country-divided-polarisation-and-identity-after-brexit.

Murray, Mark, and Alexandra Marquez. “Here’s What’s Driving America’s Increasing Political Polarization.” NBC News, 15 June 2023, www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/s-s-driving-americas-increasing-political-polarization-rcna89559.

Nadeem, Reem. “11. Americans’ Feelings about Politics, Polarization and the Tone of Political Discourse.” Pew Research Center, 19 Sept. 2023, www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/americans-feelings-about-politics-polarization-and-the-tone-of-political-discourse.

---. “Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics.” Pew Research Center - U.S. Politics & Policy, 19 Sept. 2023, www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/americans-dismal-views-of-the-nations-politics.

Pew Research Center. “As Partisan Hostility Grows, Signs of Frustration with the Two-Party System.” Pew Research Center, 9 Aug. 2022, www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/08/09/as-partisan-hostility-grows-signs-of-frustration-with-the-two-party-system/.

Stewart, Alexander J., et al. “Polarization under Rising Inequality and Economic Decline.” Science Advances, vol. 6, no. 50, Dec. 2020, p. eabd4201, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd4201.

U.S. Department of Commerce. “Geographic Inequality on the Rise in the U.S.” U.S. Department of Commerce, 15 June 2023, www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2023/06/geographic-inequality-rise-us.

Vigers, Benedict, and Lydia Saad. “Americans Pass Judgment on Their Courts.” Gallup.com, Gallup, 17 Dec. 2024, news.gallup.com/poll/653897/americans-pass-judgment-courts.aspx.

Voorheis, John, et al. “Unequal Incomes, Ideology and Gridlock: How Rising Inequality Increases Political Polarization.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2649215.

Watson, Amy. “Accuracy of News on Social Media 2018.” Statista, 4 Jan. 2024, www.statista.com/statistics/875065/social-media-accuracy-perceptions/.