Are there solutions to the serious problem of political polarization in the United States? The two main approaches would be efforts to change attitudes and efforts to change institutions and rules. Both are difficult, especially in the short run, but institutional changes are probably somewhat less daunting. I focus on the latter approach.

My point of departure is the fact that polarization between Democrats and Republicans is almost entirely caused by the increasing extremism of the Republican party and especially its right Tea-Party wing – as extensively documented by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein (2012). Democrats may have moved slightly to the left in recent decades, but Republicans have moved much further to the right. In comparison with progressive parties in other advanced industrial democracies – in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand – the Democratic Party looks like a center or slightly left-of-center party instead of a party of the far left. In a similar comparison with conservative parties elsewhere, however, the Republican Party is not just clearly on the right of the political spectrum, but considerably further to the right. A striking example of this difference is the acceptance of universal health insurance by almost all conservative parties, but not by the Republican Party in the United States, which not only opposes it but rejects it with great passion and vehemence. Paul Krugman (2013) has recently called the Republican Party the “crazy party.” This is a judgment with which European conservatives are likely to agree.

We probably cannot change the minds of Republicans like Ted Cruz and Eric Cantor, but we can try to reduce their extraordinary influence – which cannot be justified in terms of basic democratic principles. The key to my recommendations for institutional reform is to try to limit the power and influence of (1) the Republican Party as a whole, which has drifted far to the extreme right, and (2) in particular the extreme right wing of the party.