Polarization in Congress

Planned This chapter has not been written. It is listed so the book shows its full scope.

The question

How far apart are the parties in Congress, and did elite polarization lead or follow the public?

The data

• DIMEYears: 1979-2024 (23 election cycles)
• VoteviewYears: 1st to 119th Congress (1789 to 2027)

dimevoteview

The scope

Officeholders Each row of the data is a candidate or an officeholder.

The chapter sits in Part I, The sort, the great sorting. Its unit of analysis is officeholders. See how the book treats evidence.