In the mid to late 1990s, and into the new century, Evans examined social polarization in American society. At that time the polarization that people were concerned about was over social issues like abortion, and Evans and his co-authors largely concluded that no such polarization exists. In the years since those articles were published it has become clear that social issues are not what should be focused upon in this literature, but that political polarization by party identification definitely exists, and is one of the foremost challenges to liberal democratic societies.
