Affective Polarization in Western Multi-party Systems

• In Event: Anti-Elite Strategies in Multi-Party Competition

Abstract

There is a broad consensus that Western politics today is characterized by resentment and incivility toward partisan opponents. While American politics scholars have extensively analyzed the rise of mass-level affective polarization, defined as dislike and hostility toward out-partisans, comparative research on this issue is in relatively early stages. Shifting the focus to Western multi-party systems, we examine patterns of dislike and hostility across party dyads. Does partisan dislike respond to inter-party policy disputes (and if so, on which policy-dimensions), or does it mostly reflect the growing social cleavage between partisans of radical right parties versus those of mainstream parties? We examine these issues using survey data from Western countries included in the Comparative Study of Electoral System (1995-2016), combined with data on partisan ideology and party family classifications from the Comparative Manifesto Project and the Chapel Hill Expert Survey. Our analyses are intended to broaden the debate on affective polarization and provide fresh evidence on the contours of partisan hostility in Western polities.

Authors

• Noam Gidron, Hebrew University

• James Adams, University of California, Davis

• Will Horne, Princeton University