Polarization Essay

Polarization can be described as “An intense commitment to a candidate, a culture, or an ideology that sets people in one group definitively apart from people in another rival group” (Kernell & Smith 494). Two distinct political parties without any overlapping policies may make it easier for the voter to identify with a party. However, party polarization has a hidden cost which is only evident when politicians of these parties are elected to office. Party polarization leads to an inefficient government and at the end of the day, the voters suffer as their preferred policies are stalled in the House of Representatives and Congress respectively. Polarization creates two conflicting ideologies and an unwillingness to negotiate that eventually leads to government failure. Thus, from the façade it may seem as if the voters are the beneficiaries of party polarization but in reality, society as a whole suffers.
The average American citizen would benefit from an effective government. An effective American government is one in which legislation as well as legislators truly represent the constituency. True representation leads to the successful passing of legislation that supplies the public goods that represents what the people want and need. In passing legislation on behalf of the represented, the process must be efficient; time should not be wasted. The government must also have sufficient capacity to adapt to society: while the status quo may be favored in certain circumstances, there are times when the government needs to pass new legislation in response to the ever-changing society. Last and not least, the government is expected to protect the rights of everyone, including minorities.
When good legislation that represents the c...

... middle of paper ...

...e governance needs a middle groundin which parties can agree on stable solutions. The current state of government lacks what the majority want: compromise in the middle. Polarized parties do offer one aspect of effective government: it ensures a strong voice from the minority. However, as shown, the other factors that determine effective government heavily outweigh the protection of minorities who “represent no opinion but their own” (Clemmitt 398). Government must represent the majority of the constituency’s demands for public goods by efficiently passing legislation that responds to the ever-changing American society. Increasing polarization is a trend that cannot hope to yield effective governance. As Woodrow Wilson once said in 1917, it only takes “a little group of willful men” to make “the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.”