Nonpartisan vs. Bipartisan

Nonpartisan

Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias toward a political party.

Some organizations claiming to be nonpartisan are truly such; others are nominally nonpartisan (for reasons of law or public perception) but closely follow the policies of a political party.

While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of partisan includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers specifically to political party connections rather than being the strict antonym of “partisan”.

Bipartisan

Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, especially in the context of a two-party system, as is the case for countries such as the United States and other western countries, in which opposing political parties find common ground through compromise. This is in contrast to partisanship, where an individual or political party only adheres to their interests without compromise. It has been debated among political theorists however that in practice, each party advances their own political agenda at the expense of the other party because of the conflicting ideologies.