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Political Ideologies and Political Parties in America (Cambridge Studies in Public Opinion and Political Psychology)?
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It's hard to answer that question because we don't have great information on polarization in the general public. Measures of the polarization of congress are based on their votes on particular bills. This is a link to a book chapter referenced in a broken link in the previous article on the state of the scholarly debate about this issue. A few quick notes:
Anthony Downs and others argued that in a two-party political system the parties would take on nearly identical centrist platforms in order to avoid alienating the bulk of the electorate. He also turned voter theory on its head by arguing that individuals voting wasn't beneficial because the cost of educating oneself on the issues and going to vote was high and the effect of a single vote was minuscule.
David Mayhew argued that congress is unproductive because representatives in congress are more likely to win electoral approval by taking stances their constituents agree rather than passing legislation.
Hans Noel argues that thought leaders synthesize ideas and causes together; once articulated the public has an ideology they agree with and can push to congress. Furthermore he discusses electoral sorting, how the main ideologies are now congruent with the major electoral parties. This has only happened in the last 50 or so years. This can lower the "cost" of educating oneself on the issues because individuals can assume that members of the same party share similar stances on the majority of issues. The more polarized the political system is, the easier it is to differentiate the parties and thus the individual representatives from each other.
Political Ideologies and Political Parties in America is a good book. In summary he looks at the history of partisan politics and the roots of current political ideology in America and points out that traditionally parties were not ideologically based but typically determined by your social network and community-- simply a coalition to elect candidates. He shows that contemporary political ideology started to solidify in the 50s and 60s, which later shifted parties as people began to "sort" themselves into the two major parties based on ideology.
In the 50s American political scientists were actually complaining that the party platforms were too similar. Anthony Downs Economic Theory of Democracy stated that two-party systems would lead to nearly identical party platforms in their attempts to appeal to the largest number of voters. This thesis also tended to assume that the effect would skew the platforms to be more centrist, which national elections tend to do.
Also in Anthony Down's analysis though was a cost-benefit equation for voting. He argued the impact and thus benefit of voting was exceptionally low and the cost of voting--informing yourself about candidate's platforms and physically going to vote was high. Ideologically distinct parties help to address this paradox of voting by reducing the cost of voting as you have a pretty good idea of general policy stance based on party affiliation alone. Also, individual candidates then have more of an opportunity to point out the flaws/risks of their opponents, as well as highlighting the benefits of their own policies--helping the other side of the equation as well.
Also, while I'm not very knowledgeable about the UK government, your parliament is many times the size of our legislative branch while simultaneously representing a smaller populace. This could allow for more distinct parties and platforms to form and get enough backing to impact government.
E as suas fontes quais são? Até agora você também só fez afirmações sem fontes, eu pelo menos posso apelar pra anedota, né? Mas já que a minha análise não é o suficiente pra você, segue uma fonte acadêmica:
Facts are the Overton Window in the US has shifted far to the right.
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0731/America-s-big-shift-right
For further reading:
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/%7Ejcampbel/documents/LaymanCarseyReview2006.pdf
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