Exposure to the Other Side(s): Affective Polarization in Multi-Party Systems

• In Event: Liberal Democracy in an Age of Populism

Abstract

Studies of American politics have identified an increasing affective, identity-based polarization between Democrat and Republican voters. Recent work indicates that exposure to partisan claims from the other side plays a decisive role in this process. However, this work does not provide an explanation for why such exposure to partisan claims drives affective polarization. Furthermore, while claims have been made of Western European politics undergoing a similar process due to the rise of populist radical right parties (PRRPs), these studies tend to focus on the supply-side of the equation. It therefore remains unclear whether the U.S findings on affective voter polarization translate to such predominantly multi-party systems.

Using a combination of conjoint and vignette experiments, this study investigates the effects of exposure to partisan claims on affective voter polarization within Western European multi-party systems. The study relies on panel data from the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. A third line of research have identified that large subsets of Western populations across political factions have latent authoritarian predispositions. These predispositions are activated under situations of normative threat. The activation of authoritarian predispositions therefore provide a plausible explanation as to why exposure to partisan claims drives political polarization. To test this, the study incorporates the four-item child rearing values (CRV) index measure of authoritarian predispositions. It attempts to synthesize the burgeoning literatures on polarization from the United States and work on PRRPs from Western Europe, respectively, in light of the literature on dynamics of authoritarianism. The overarching expectation is that Western European mainstream parties, such as the social democrats and conservatives, are functional equivalents to the U.S Democratic Party while PRRPs are equivalent to the Republican Party. The second expectation is that activation of authoritarian predispositions account for the polarizing impact of exposure to the other side, and therefore to much of the affective polarization around mainstream versus PRRP identities.

Author

• Lars Erik Berntzen, University of Bergen