c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)

UNDATED _ Everyone”knows”that Americans are becoming more polarized. The”right”and the”left”are growing even as the center diminishes.”Culture wars”are raging between”liberals”and”conservatives.” The role of government, the effort to ban guns, the argument over legal abortion are all cited as examples of a sharply divided society teetering on the brink of collapse. Columnists, editorial writers, and news anchors agonize about this polarization and wonder whether society can survive such divisiveness.

Rarely has anyone tried to prove or disprove this supposed trend toward polarization. It is treated as a fact, a truth that is almost sacred. Only a person with considerable intellectual courage would dare call it into question.

In the current issue of the American Journal of Sociology, however, a team of scholars from Princeton University have dared to raise the question of whether increasing polarization truly exists in American society.

Using data from two ongoing studies _ the University of Michigan’s National Election Study and the National Opinion Research Center’s (NORC) General Social Survey _ scholars have traced American attitudes from the early 1970s to the middle 90s.

Their models and methods are impeccable, and their conclusions astonishing: There is a decline of polarization with respect to gender roles, support for racial integration, and the control and punishment of crime. But polarization has increased with respect to abortion and, to a lesser extent, with regard to feelings toward the poor. There has been no change on issues of sexual behavior.

Abortion, then, is the nation’s most polarizing issue. However, that polarization has not affected other issues, including issues related to the proper private and public roles of women.

How can it be that at a time when everyone seems to be screaming, the sharp divisions are, on balance, declining?

There are a number of possible explanations:

_ The real polarization on abortion is so strong that it seems to fill the whole picture. Yet, as the Princeton authors remark,”Abortion-attitude measures behave differently than measures of opinion on any other issue, underscoring the exceptional character of the abortion debate. To generalize from the abortion controversy to other issues, or to view it as evidence of more deep-seated polarization is profoundly misleading.” _ Leaders who take strong stands on issues have become increasingly shrill. Their shouting has been interpreted as representing the way their membership feels when, in fact, it does not.

_ Conflict is news, consensus is not; the one is covered, the other is ignored. For example, when television presents an issue, it usually does so through the voices of those who hold extreme positions, creating the impression that these folks represent the way most people feel.

_ It is in the interest of some leaders, and the intellectuals or policy advocates who support them, to create an impression of polarization because it enhances their power.

The most important reason for being skeptical about polarization is that, while intellectuals are usually consistently liberal or conservative, most real people are not. Unlike the elite, ordinary folks feel no constraint to follow an ideological party line. This is a truth that is very difficult for the elite to comprehend.

An interesting aspect of the Princeton research is that all the talk about polarization has not created it. Obviously, ordinary folks are not polarized and either do not listen to nervous anxiety about polarization or do not take it seriously.

With abortion as the exception, the truth is that the polarization of American society is not a reality but a fantasy, a game that certain members of the elite play with one another to enhance their own position and power.

Polarization rhetoric ought not be taken seriously, nor ought it be used to scare ordinary folks. It isn’t true and ordinary folks know it isn’t true.

MJP END GREELEY