Earlier this year, a NPR/PBS News/Marist poll revealed that three-quarters of Americans believe democracy is under serious threat.
For perspective and analysis on political polarization in the U.S., please consider Derek E. Holliday, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at The George Washington University. Holliday's research focuses broadly on political representation in American politics, at the intersection of political behavior and institutions. He is specifically interested in how partisan identification and animosity structures behavior across all levels of U.S. politics (national, state, and local) and the consequences of political polarization on democratic functioning. His work has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Political Science Research and Methods, PNAS Nexus, and the Election Law Journal.
Holliday most recently co-authored "Why depolarization is hard: Evaluating attempts to decrease partisan animosity in America," a study that found that achieving lasting depolarization will likely require a shift in focus, moving beyond individual-level treatments to address the elite behaviors and structural incentives that fuel partisan conflict.
To speak with Professor Holliday, please contact GW Media Relations at gwmedia
gwu [dot] edu (gwmedia[at]gwu[dot]edu).
-GW-