UB political scientists explore realities of political polarization

Political divisions in American politics are deep and real, yet the idea persists that America is a moderate nation and that most Americans are moderates, writes political scientist James Campbell in his forthcoming book, “Polarized: Making Sense of a Divided America.”

Campbell’s UB colleague Jacob Neiheisel, assistant professor of political science, agrees on the issues related to polarization, but reaches his conclusions from a different perspective.

“My research looks at the psychological foundations that would sustain political polarization, along with the technological advancements and developments that might encourage it,” says Neiheisel, an expert on political communication and campaigns.

His current research looks at various algorithms used by search engines that push results toward specific users.

Campbell, UB Distinguished Professor of Political Science, is an expert on American politics, campaigns, public opinions and election forecasting. He zooms out from the micro-level of analysis to look at the big picture of polarization.

“Conventional wisdom in the political science literature is that polarization started with political leaders while the rest of the public followed to either side,” says Campbel, who has served as a program officer at the National Science Foundation and as an American Political Science Association Congressional fellow. “Some of that has occurred, but my contention is that most of it started with the public — the public moved first and the leaders were brought along.”

The current wave of polarization started in the late 1960s, Campbell explains, with counterculture, the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement all contributing to breaking many issue wide open.

“There was also a new generation at that time that didn’t push issues into the background because of major events like World War II, the Great Depression or the Cold War,” he says. “These factors unified the country in an unusual way.”

But that unity was unusual, an eccentric hitch in the orbit of American politics. Both scholars say political polarization is actually a return to politics as usual, “nasty and brutish as it is,” Campbell says.

“It’s easy to romanticize periods in American history when we didn’t have polarization,” Neiheisel notes, “and say those periods represent what politics is supposed to be like, but polarization is actually the norm in American politics.”

The different approaches Campbell and Neiheisel bring to their discussion of polarization are the focus of the next Scholars on the Road lecture presented by the College of Arts and Sciences. It will take place March 8 in Washington, D.C.

Now in its third season, Scholars on the Road features UB faculty members discussing their research and areas of expertise with alumni, taking the classroom experience and sharing it with UB alumni here in Buffalo and around the country.