The poles in polarization

Social categorization and affective polarization in multiparty systems

authored by

Adrian Jacob Rothers

Abstract

A challenge in adapting the concept of affective polarization to multiparty systems has been to determine who is polarized against whom. I propose a strategy to uncover the different ways in which people construe the political field – that is, how they categorize the party landscape in terms of “us” and “them” from commonly-used survey data. Using 2023 panel data from Germany, a multiparty democracy, I show that people are polarized in opposing camps along three different divides: between Left and Right, between Mainstream and Rightwing Populists, and between Center and Extreme. To understand what people are polarized over, I explore the issue differences that underpin each of the divides. Lastly, I examine the associations between affective polarization and democratic attitudes across camps and find considerable variation in those associations. This variation suggests that perhaps not all affective polarization should be seen as equally problematic.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Environmental Planning
Environmental Behaviour and Planning

External Organisation(s)

Philipps-Universität Marburg

Type

Article

Journal

Electoral Studies

Volume

95

ISSN

0261-3794

Publication date

05.03.2025

Publication status

E-pub ahead of print

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Political Science and International Relations

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2025.102908 (Access: Open)