It’s the week (the week of August 31, 2020) after two consecutive weeks of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.
And, if you’ve been taking it all in, you might have the distinct impression that Americans are more divided now than almost ever. However, a new study sheds light on why the two U.S. political parties may polarize without voters doing the same on the issues.
The study is published in a paper by researchers from the Santa Fe Institute (SFI), Northwestern University and UCLA in the September issue of SIAM Review – a journal published by Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) – answers a long-standing question in political science as to why the two parties are so polarized. (See