Quantity and Quality: The Bidimensional Nature of Affective Polarization

• In Event: (Affective) Polarization, Policy and Democratic Support

Abstract

Growing concerns about levels of affective polarization in Western democracies contrast with the little empirical evidence that affective polarization is on the rise beyond the American context. Existent conceptualizations and measurement of affective polarization in comparative perspective fundamentally conceive it as the distance between in-group and out-group affect. This paper argues that research typically counts the quantity of affective polarization and that often the more important property is the quality of affective polarization – the degree to which out-group disaffect constitutes a stronger force than in-group affect, in relative terms. The authors first discuss the rationale underlying the quality of affective polarization. Second, the authors provide a measurement strategy for the quality of affective polarization in multi-party systems and apply it to a large-N analysis relying on post-electoral data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, featuring 174 elections from 55 polities between 1996-2016. Third, the authors describe and compare the quantity and quality of affective polarization across countries. Finally, the authors explore the macro-level correlates of both these dimensions of affective polarization.

Authors

• Diego Garzia, University of Lausanne

• Frederico Ferreira da Silva, University of Lausanne

• Chiara Vargiu, Univertiy of Lausanne, Institute of Political Studies