The Cycle of Polarization

Abstract

American politics features very long cycles of polarization and depolarization between the political parties. Politics polarized around the Civil War and remained polarized until the end of the Gilded Age. Then began a long period of depolarization. Polarization started increasing once again in the middle of the twentieth century, and we are now at the peak of the current cycle. Polarization is a characteristic feature of the Reagan regime. Although Republican politicians used strategies of polarization to gain power, polarization made it increasingly difficult for them to govern, and will eventually lead to the regime’s undoing.