Polarization in the Political System
             On Tuesday, November 14, 1995, in what has been perceived as
             the years biggest non-event, the federal government shut down all
             "non-essential" services due to what was, for all intents and
             purposes, a game of national "chicken" between the House Speaker and
             the President. And, at an estimated cost of 200 million dollars a day,
             this dubious battle of dueling egos did not come cheap (Bradsher,
             1995, p.16). Why do politicians find it almost congenitally
             impossible to cooperate? What is it about politics and power that seem
             to always put them at odds with good government? Indeed, is an
             effective, well run government even possible given the current
             adversarial relationship between our two main political parties? It
             would seem that the exercise of power for its own sake, and a
             competitive situation in which one side must always oppose the other
             on any issue, is incompatible with the cooperation and compromise
             necessary for the government to function. As the United States becomes
             more extreme in its beliefs in general, group polarization and
             competition, which requires a mutual exclusivity of goal attainment,
             will lead to more "showdown" situations in which the goal of good
             government gives way to political posturing and power-mongering.
             In this paper I will analyze recent political behavior in terms of two
             factors: Group behavior with an emphasis on polarization, and
             competition. However, one should keep in mind that these two factors
             are interrelated. Group polarization tends to exacerbate inter-group
             competition by driving any two groups who initially disagree farther
             apart in their respective views. In turn, a competitive situation in
             which one side must lose in order for the other to win (and
             political situations are nearly always competitive), will codify the
             differences between groups - leading to further extremism ...