Abstract: This topic is especially important and urgent for the future of democracy. The challenges facing countries around the world from political polarization are now a much-discussed theme among policymakers and scholars. Political polarization is often tied to broader social divisions, including those related to race, religion, and culture, reinforcing the dichotomy of “us versus them” in politics. During the pandemic, high levels of social and economic inequality further exposed the wedge between different socioeconomic groups eroding social cohesion.
In the United States, we face one of the most serious partisan divides that we have experienced in many decades. While in Canada, the polarization of political parties hasn’t been as pronounced, navigating social divisions remains an important challenge as it can undermine effective policy making. Indeed, polarization contributes to gridlock in legislative decisionmaking, creating daunting challenges to the enactment of effective policies that would make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. This lack of solutions then contributes to citizen cynicism and distrust of government in general including an opposing party. Citizens then gravitate to media outlets that fit with their world views, reinforcing this polarization. Initiatives to overcome polarization like community-based deliberative forums are unlikely to succeed in this polarized environment.
Political polarization also created major challenges for the discipline of political science. Policymakers, scholars, journalists, and citizens are now looking to political science for answers or solutions to this slide toward polarization. More broadly, these new expectations call upon the discipline to be more engaged with the public sphere of ideas. In the US context, many political scientists have responded with new and novel solutions like changing the primary system, reforming the electoral college, or instituting new voting procedures. More broadly, policymakers are now hoping that political science can help them respond to their constituents and improve the policymaking process. But engagement with public policy also means that political scientists need to be able to offer evidence-based research that is also widely accessible. This effort also requires inventiveness and creativity as political scientists strive to uphold their commitment to so-called objective social science research while also supporting the advancement of democratic policies, norms and values.