![\"Polarization\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mamartino.com\/projects\/rise_of_partisanship\/img\/bg.jpg?w=840\")
http:\/\/www.mamartino.com\/projects\/rise_of_partisanship\/<\/a><\/p>\nReassessing the data, I explored the shifts in political party majorities, with particular emphasis on the percentage of seats held during each session of congress.\u00a0 After reviewing these shifts in the visualization, I began to research what was happening in the congressional session just before or during these shifts and recognized many included war and financial crises.\u00a0 After adding in data for each major war, financial crises, political assassinations, and a few other noteworthy events, the pattern became clear that during these moments of turmoil and national fear, political parties were able to gain a stronger hold upon congress.\u00a0 Each party has capitalized on these moments and taken control.<\/p>\n
MATERIALS:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Vote View<\/a>\u00a0– data source that includes every vote recorded in the U.S. Senate, categorized by session of congress, member, party, roll call vote<\/li>\n
- Microsoft Excel<\/a>\u00a0– spreadsheet software used to explore data and make a few basic calculations\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Tableau<\/a>\u00a0– free software to create interactive data visualizations to be shared in both public and private settings<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
METHODS:<\/p>\n
Starting with an investigation into how political party majorities have shifted throughout the history of congress, I began to look into effective ways to communicate this.\u00a0 As member totals have changed throughout our history, depending on number of states in union, redistricting districts, etc., percentages were used to normalize data between sessions.\u00a0 As this was primarily an investigation into when political landscapes tend to shift, the party itself was less important, so color was used to express these shifts for emphasis (Figures 1 and 2).<\/p>\n
These figures originally had the number of members on the y-axis, however, the decision to normalize the y-axis was made to give more emphasis on party majority shifts.\u00a0 The changing member count values were confusing the viewer and not adding to the question at hand; while be it interesting to view the increases in members as states were added to the union and temporarily lost during the Civil War.<\/p>\n
At this point, the political party graphs (Figures 3 and 4) were included to give context and numerical values to the previous figures.\u00a0 A prior knowledge of the political history of the U.S. is needed to gain much insight from Figures 3 and 4, as the agendas of political parties have changed throughout history so it is important not to assess parties in history as the same as their modern incarnation.<\/p>\n
RESULTS:<\/p>\n
Figures 1 and 2 express the majority party power shifts through the history of both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States.\u00a0 This is shown through percentage of seats held by the majority party.\u00a0 Significant gains by majority parties have been made throughout history during moments of national uncertainty and fear, in particular, during times of war, financial crises, and assassinations.\u00a0 Historical context is given in the timeline through text.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/10\/House-Majority-Shifts-2-e1539182138589-300x179.png?resize=785%2C468\")
Figure 1 –\u00a0Public Higher Resolution Link<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/10\/Senate-Majority-Shifts.png?resize=745%2C444\")
Figure 2 –\u00a0Public Higher Resolution Link<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nWhile a deeper look is certainly needed, it appears that political parties tend to increase majority concentrations during periods of unrest and fear.\u00a0 During these moments of national panic, the electorate is more likely to get behind a particular ideology and allow it to have significantly more power.\u00a0 The political slant of the electorate can shift from their own internal anxiety of the times, as well as external rhetoric from a political party.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/10\/House-Party-Majority.png?resize=840%2C500\")
<\/p>\nFigure 3<\/span> –\u00a0Public Higher Resolution Link<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/10\/Senate-Party-Majority.png?resize=840%2C501\")
<\/p>\n - Microsoft Excel<\/a>\u00a0– spreadsheet software used to explore data and make a few basic calculations\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n