More Democrats Take Liberal Positions, More Republicans Take Conservative Positions Percent of Republicans with political
However, there is as much ideological uniformity on the left as the right. The share of Democrats holding consistently liberal views has grown steadily over the past 20 years, quadrupling from 5% in 1994 to 23% today. Social issues like homosexuality and immigration that once drove deep divides within the Democratic Party are now areas of relative consensus. And Democrats have become more uniformly critical of business and more supportive of government.
More Democrats Take Liberal Positions, More Republicans Take Conservative  | Positions  | Percent of Democrats with political  | Percent of Republicans with political  | values that are.  | values that are  | 56  | 53  | 33  | 50  | 49  | 33  | 49  | 33  | 45%  | 34  | 35  | Mostly  | 41  | conservative 32%  | 31  | 34  | 31  | 30%  | 24  | 25  | Mostly liberal 25%  | 23  | 20  | 17  | 15  | 13  | Consistently 13%  | 10  | 10  | conservative  | 6  | Consistently  | 5%  | liberal  | 1994  | 1999  | 2004  | 2011  | 2014  | 1994  | 1999  | 2004  | 2011  | 2014  | Source 2014 Political Polarization in the American Public  | Notes: Ideological consistency based on a scaleof 10 politica I've lues questions (see Appendix A). Republicans include Republican-leaning  | independents; Democrats fincl lude Democratic -leaning independents (see Appendix B)  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 