Solutions to Stopping United States Political Polarization

This brief explains how the United States’ political primary structure creates radical politicians through party primaries, which allow a marginal faction of extreme voters to choose a candidate for the general election. This leads to intense polarization as each party selects a candidate most suited to their interests, killing American centrism.

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September 13, 2022

Inquiry-driven, this project may reflect personal views, aiming to enrich problem-related discourse.

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Abstract — This brief explains how the United States’ political primary structure creates radical politicians through party primaries, which allow a marginal faction of extreme voters to choose a candidate for the general election. This leads to intense polarization as each party selects a candidate most suited to their interests, killing American centrism. Our voting problems stem from the root, party primaries that create polarized candidates, heavily dividing the nation and pushing out centrists. Solving increasing polarization requires a fundamental shift in how the United States carries out its elections by embracing alternative primary voting methods. This brief will analyze two solutions to our political division, general primaries and ranked-choice voting.

Nikhil Daniel

Fellow

Nikhil Daniel is a rising high school freshman located in Central Florida with an interest in International Relations and Geopolitical Conflicts. As such, alongside working in the Effective Discourse Department at YIP, he is also a member of the Foreign Policy Youth Collaborative, board member of his debate team, and class president.

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Katelin Wong

Vice President, Policy Media Publishing

Katelin attends Cornell University, majoring in public policy, and intends to pursue a career in international law.

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