Partisan means supporting or favoring a particular political party, candidate, or political side, while bipartisan means involving cooperation or agreement between two political parties. In the United States, bipartisan usually refers to Democrats and Republicans working together on legislation, policies, or other political goals. Partisanship is a normal part of democracy because parties compete to win elections and influence government, while bipartisanship occurs when members of competing parties find enough common ground to work toward a shared objective.
A partisan is someone who supports, advocates for, or aligns with a particular political party or candidate. Partisan activity can include promoting a party's platform, supporting its representatives, campaigning for its candidates, or working to help the party gain political power.
To understand partisanship, it helps to understand the role of political parties themselves. Political parties are coalitions of people seeking political office who share at least some common goals. Unlike outside advocacy or interest groups, political parties attempt to influence government from within by nominating candidates, winning elections, taking office, and making policy. A partisan supports a party or its candidates in pursuing those goals.
Being partisan is not inherently negative. Political parties help organize people around shared political goals and give voters recognizable choices between different candidates and approaches to government. Historically, political scientists have even worried about parties being too similar, leaving voters without meaningful choices between them.
Partisanship can become more problematic, however, when supporting a political party becomes less about advancing its ideas and more about defeating the opposing side. Political scientist Lee Drutman describes hyperpartisanship as being strongly connected to identity and an us-versus-them mentality. When political competition takes this form, compromise across party lines can become increasingly difficult.
Bipartisan literally means involving two parties. In American politics, the term generally describes cooperation or agreement between the Democratic and Republican parties.
A bipartisan bill, for example, is legislation that receives meaningful involvement or support from members of both parties. A bipartisan commission includes members from both parties. And a bipartisan political effort brings Democrats and Republicans together around a shared objective despite their other political differences.
Bipartisanship does not mean that the two parties suddenly agree on everything. Members of opposing parties can maintain very different political philosophies while identifying a particular issue where their interests, priorities, or proposed solutions overlap.
The Democracy Group's discussion of partisanship illustrates why this distinction matters. American political institutions frequently require people with competing interests to work together. Drutman argues that intense two-party competition can conflict with institutions that require broad compromise, particularly when politics becomes a zero-sum struggle in which each side primarily wants to prevent the other from gaining power.
The easiest way to understand the difference is to look at who is participating and how they relate to political parties.
A partisan approach operates primarily from the perspective of one political party. A Democratic legislator proposing a policy supported primarily by Democrats is engaging in partisan politics, just as a Republican legislator advancing a Republican priority may be doing so from a partisan position.
A bipartisan approach crosses that party divide. Democrats and Republicans may begin with different priorities but cooperate on a bill, reform, investigation, commission, or other political objective.
There are also political efforts that attempt to operate beyond the two major parties altogether. Historian Jon Grinspan describes historical reform movements that created an “invisible third party” of reform by assembling factions and voters from across existing political divisions rather than working exclusively through either major party.
Bipartisanship and partisanship describe different forms of political behavior, but they are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
A politician can be strongly committed to their political party while still cooperating with members of the opposing party on particular issues. Likewise, two parties can compete intensely during elections and still work together when their interests overlap or when governing requires compromise.
The key distinction is that partisanship emphasizes support for a particular political party or side, whereas bipartisanship emphasizes cooperation between two political parties. Both can exist within the same democratic system—and even within the behavior of the same politician or voter.
Understanding that distinction also helps separate ordinary partisanship from hyperpartisanship. Political parties can disagree, compete for power, and offer voters different visions for government without necessarily treating the opposing party as an enemy. The greater challenge arises when partisan identity becomes so strong that cooperation itself is viewed as unacceptable.
What is partisanship, and why does it divide us? Learn the psychology, consequences, and ways Americans can bridge the partisan divide.
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Subscribe to our NewsletterPartisanship means supporting, advocating for, or aligning with a particular political party or candidate. A partisan generally supports a party’s goals, promotes its platform or candidates, and wants that party to gain political power. Partisanship is a normal feature of democratic politics because political parties organize people around shared goals and compete to influence government. However, strong partisanship can become divisive when loyalty to a political party becomes part of a person’s social identity and politics turns into an “us versus them” competition.
In simple terms, partisanship means picking a political team and supporting that side. A partisan tends to support a particular political party or its candidates and wants them to succeed. This is a normal part of politics, just as sports fans naturally root for their team. But partisanship can become a problem when loyalty to the team becomes more important than evaluating its actions fairly, or when people begin treating those on the other side as enemies rather than fellow citizens with different political views.
Partisan politics is not inherently good or bad. Some partisanship is a normal and useful part of democracy because political parties organize voters around shared goals, offer competing ideas for government, and give citizens meaningful choices in elections. Partisanship becomes harmful when loyalty to a political party becomes more important than evaluating ideas fairly, accepting legitimate election outcomes, compromising with opponents, or maintaining shared democratic rules. The problem, therefore, is less partisanship itself than hyperpartisanship—when ordinary political competition becomes an us-versus-them struggle in which defeating the opposing party takes priority over governing together.
Negative partisanship is when a person’s political behavior is driven more by dislike, fear, or opposition toward another political party than by support for their own. A negative partisan may vote for a candidate not because they particularly like that candidate, but because they strongly want to prevent the opposing party from winning. In this way, negative partisanship turns political competition from “I want my side to win” into “I need the other side to lose.” It can intensify polarization because political opponents increasingly come to be viewed as threats rather than simply people with different political preferences.
Brandon Stover is the Network Manager for The Democracy Group and a Digital Content Specialist at the McCourtney Institute for Democracy. He leads partnerships and collaborations across the podcast network, oversees educational content strategy, and produces written, audio, and video content while managing the network's digital marketing efforts. Before joining the McCourtney Institute for Democracy, Brandon founded and led a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating free educational content on global issues. He holds a master's degree in Architecture from Washington State University.
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