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Party Polarization: What this Means for Representation

Congress is currently in partisan gridlock, this is without going into the impeachment inquiry of President Donald J.Trump. In a Pew Research Study done in 2014, half of Americans polled stated that Democrats and Republicans need to compromise more in order for things to get done in Washington D.C, (Pew Research Center, 2014). Representatives have been moving in opposite directions: Republicans are moving toward the right and Democrats are moving toward the left, (Thomsen, 2014). With the polarization in the two major parties, that means that few bills get passed with bipartisan support, and this means a less representative government. 
In the United States elections, two parties dominate the ballot: the Democrat Party and the Republican Party. Since the beginning of the country, two parties have always been in charge. Yet, in the middle to late 20th century, these two parties have gotten farther and farther apart from one another. This is called party polarization. Party polarization can occur when parties are more internally cohesive on policy matters and each party’s preferred policies are further and further apart, (Adler et al, pg. 229).  In a study titled “A Paradox in Polarization? Cross-pressured Representatives and the Missing Incentive to Moderate,” in World Affairs, author Benjamin T. Toll discusses the decrease of Congressmen in the U.S House of Representatives voting for different parties' bills. 

Table 1. Cross-pressured Membership in the U.S. House.
Toll, Benjamin T., World Affairs, Spring2019, Vol. 182 Issue 1, p61-96, 36p, 16 Charts, Chart; found on p69

In this table above, you can see that there is an increase of cross-pressured membership from the 109th house to the 111th house, but then there is a decrease from the 111th house to the 113th house. During these different houses, ranging from 2005 to 2015, the United States was going through a recession and there was a change from a Republican administration to a Democrat administration. During the years of recession, there were more representatives that were being cross-pressured. It could be argued that this occurred in order to help the American people and get through the recession. Yet, once the Obama administration took control of the White House and the Democrat Party took control of Congress, there are fewer and fewer Republicans being cross-pressured. This is a clear data point that shows the two parties no longer working with one another to pass laws and different policies. If a member of another party decides to “cross the aisle”  and vote for another party’s bill, they will have a harder time getting re-elected, (Toll, pg. 85). In the article, “Ideological Moderates Won’t Run: How Party Fit Matters for Partisan Polarization in Congress” author Danielle Thomsen cites research done by Joseph Bafumi and Micheal Herron that currently, Congress has “leapfrog representation”. Leapfrog representation is “a form of representation that leaves moderates with a dearth of representation in Congress,” (Bafumi and Herron, 2010). This means that a section of the American population is not getting any representation in the U.S federal government. 
In a Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2017, 37% of registered voters identified as independents, 33% as Democrats and 26% as Republicans, (Pew Research Center, 2017). The survey goes into more detail stating that around 10% do not lean Democratic or Republican, they are solely independent. That means about one in ten people are not represented in the federal government. 
Without representation in the federal government, that means that the needs of constituents might not be met, and their trust in the government will ultimately be lowered. Representation is important in government because the issues that are important to you and others in your district will also be important to your representative. Representation happens via policy, communication, and constituent service, (Hitt, 2019). If a representative isn’t sponsoring or supporting policies that are important to the minority party of their district, then they are only representing around half of their constituents. The point of a representative is to still let the minority party have rights in the government, but with leapfrog representation, then there is a section that doesn’t have any rights in the government. 
Over the past ten years, we have seen fewer and fewer bills being created into laws with bipartisan support and fewer bills being passed altogether. Americans believe that nothing is getting done in Congress and that is because of party polarization. Party polarization is causing leapfrog representation and having some of the American population not have a voice in the federal government. 

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References
Adler, E. Scott et al., “The United States Congress, vol. , W.W. Norton & Company, 2019. 
Accessed 15 Oct. 2019.  
Hitt, Matthew P. (2019). Representation. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from Colorado 
State University POLS 304 Canvas site.
Bafumi, Joseph, and Micheal C. Herron. “Leapfrog Representation and Extremism: A Study of 
American Voters and Their Members in Congress.” American Political Science Review, vol. 104, no. 3, Aug. 2010, pp. 519–542. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1017/S0003055410000316.
“Political Polarization, Political Compromise and Divisive Policy Debates.” Pew Research 
Center for the People and the Press, 18 Sept. 2018, www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/section-4-political-compromise-and-divisive-policy-debates/.
Thomsen, Danielle M. “Ideological Moderates Won’t Run: How Party Fit Matters for Partisan 
Polarization in Congress.” Journal of Politics, vol. 76, no. 3, July 2014, pp. 786–797. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1017/S0022381614000243.
Toll, Benjamin T. “A Paradox in Polarization? Cross-Pressured Representatives and the Missing 
Incentive to Moderate.” World Affairs, vol. 182, no. 1, Spring 2019, pp. 61–96. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0043820019825934.
“Wide Gender Gap, Growing Educational Divide in Voters' Party Identification.” Pew Research 
Center for the People and the Press, 2 Jan. 2019, www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/wide-gender-gap-growing-educational-divide-in-voters-party-identification/.

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