Political Science · Literature

Research papers on Political polarization

Recent and highly-cited academic work on political polarization, gathered from Semantic Scholar, CrossRef and OpenAlex.

1. Social Media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation: A Review of the Scientific Literature

   Joshua A. Tucker, Andrew M. Guess, Pablo Barberá, et al. · 2018 · SSRN Electronic Journal · 1,202 citations

2. Political communication in a high-choice media environment: a challenge for democracy?

   Peter Van Aelst, Jesper Strömbäck, Toril Aalberg, et al. · 2017 · Annals of the International Communication Association · 945 citations

   During the last decennia media environments and political communication systems have changed fundamentally. These changes have major ramifications for the political information environments and the extent to which they aid people in becoming informed citizens. Against this background, the purpose of this article is to review research on key changes and trends in political information environments and assess their democratic implications. We will focus on advanced postindustrial democracies and six concerns that are all closely linked to the dissemination and acquisition of political knowledge: (1) declining supply of political information, (2) declining quality of news, (3) increasing media

3. The Quantity and the Quality of Party Systems

   Russell J. Dalton · 2008 · Comparative Political Studies · 684 citations

   Previous research claims that the number of parties affects the representation of social cleavages in voting behavior, election turnout, patterns of political conflict, and other party system effects. This article argues that research typically counts the quantity of parties and that often the more important property is the quality of party competition—the polarization of political parties within a party system. The author first discusses why polarization is important to study. Second, the author provides a new measurement of party system polarization based on voter perceptions of party positions in the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, which includes more than 50 separate elections fr

4. Political Polarization on Twitter

   Michael Conover, A. Ratkiewicz, Matthew Francisco, et al. · 2021 · Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media · 630 citations

   In this study we investigate how social media shape the networked public sphere and facilitate communication between communities with different political orientations. We examine two networks of political communication on Twitter, comprised of more than 250,000 tweets from the six weeks leading up to the 2010 U.S. congressional midterm elections. Using a combination of network clustering algorithms and manually-annotated data we demonstrate that the network of political retweets exhibits a highly segregated partisan structure, with extremely limited connectivity between left- and right-leaning users. Surprisingly this is not the case for the user-to-user mention network, which is dominated b

5. Toward a Theory of Pernicious Polarization and How It Harms Democracies: Comparative Evidence and Possible Remedies

   Jennifer McCoy, Murat Somer · 2018 · The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · 573 citations

   This article compares the dynamics of polarization in the eleven case studies analyzed in this special issue to draw conclusions about antecedents of severe political and societal polarization, the characteristics and mechanisms of such polarization, and consequences of severe polarization for democracy. We find that the emergence of pernicious polarization (when a society is split into mutually distrustful “Us vs. Them” camps) is not attributable to any specific underlying social or political cleavage nor any particular institutional make-up. Instead, pernicious polarization arises when political entrepreneurs pursue their political objectives by using polarizing strategies, such as mobiliz

6. Political Effects of the Internet and Social Media

   Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, Maria Petrova, Рубен Ениколопов · 2020 · Annual Review of Economics · 539 citations

   How do the Internet and social media affect political outcomes? We review empirical evidence from the recent political economy literature, focusing primarily on work that considers traits that distinguish the Internet and social media from traditional off-line media, such as low barriers to entry and reliance on user-generated content. We discuss the main results about the effects of the Internet in general, and social media in particular, on voting, street protests, attitudes toward government, political polarization, xenophobia, and politicians’ behavior. We also review evidence on the role of social media in the dissemination of fake news, and we summarize results about the strategies emp

7. Divided by the Vote: Affective Polarization in the Wake of the Brexit Referendum

   Sara B. Hobolt, Thomas J. Leeper, James Tilley · 2020 · British Journal of Political Science · 486 citations

   Abstract A well-functioning democracy requires a degree of mutual respect and a willingness to talk across political divides. Yet numerous studies have shown that many electorates are polarized along partisan lines, with animosity towards the partisan out-group. This article further develops the idea of affective polarization, not by partisanship, but instead by identification with opinion-based groups. Examining social identities formed during Britain's 2016 referendum on European Union membership, the study uses surveys and experiments to measure the intensity of partisan and Brexit-related affective polarization. The results show that Brexit identities are prevalent, felt to be personally

8. Political Polarization on the Digital Sphere: A Cross-platform, Over-time Analysis of Interactional, Positional, and Affective Polarization on Social Media

   Moran Yarchi, Christian Baden, Neta Kligler-Vilenchik · 2020 · Political Communication · 424 citations

   Political polarization on the digital sphere poses a real challenge to many democracies around the world. Although the issue has received some scholarly attention, there is a need to improve the conceptual precision in the increasingly blurry debate. The use of computational communication science approaches allows us to track political conversations in a fine-grained manner within their natural settings – the realm of interactive social media. The present study combines different algorithmic approaches to studying social media data in order to capture both the interactional structure and content of dynamic political talk online. We conducted an analysis of political polarization across socia

9. Do Search Algorithms Endanger Democracy? An Experimental Investigation of Algorithm Effects on Political Polarization

   Jaeho Cho, Saifuddin Ahmed, Martin Hilbert, et al. · 2020 · Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media · 158 citations

   ABSTRACT This study examines algorithm effects on user opinion, utilizing a real-world recommender algorithm of a highly popular video-sharing platform, YouTube. We experimentally manipulate user search/watch history by our custom programming. A controlled laboratory experiment is then conducted to examine whether exposure to algorithmically recommended content reinforces and polarizes political opinions. Results suggest that political self-reinforcement, as indicated by the political emotion-ideology alignment, and affective polarization are heightened by political videos – selected by the YouTube recommender algorithm – based on participants’ own search preferences. Suggestions for how to

10. Who Dislikes Whom? Affective Polarization between Pairs of Parties in Western Democracies

    Noam Gidron, James Adams, Will Horne · 2022 · British Journal of Political Science · 155 citations

    Abstract While dislike of opposing parties, that is, affective polarization, is a defining feature of contemporary politics, research on this topic largely centers on the United States. We introduce an approach that analyzes affective polarization between pairs of parties, bridging the US two-party system and multiparty systems in other democracies. Analyzing survey data from twenty Western democracies since the mid-1990s, first, we show that partisans' dislike of out-parties is linked to elite policy disagreements on economic issues and, increasingly over time, also to cultural issues. Secondly, we argue and empirically demonstrate that governing coalition partners in parliamentary democrac

11. Affective Polarization in Multiparty Systems? Comparing Affective Polarization Towards Voters and Parties in Norway and the United States

    Erik Knudsen · 2021 · Scandinavian Political Studies · 70 citations

    A growing body of comparative studies on partisan hostility – a phenomenon known as affective polarization – is providing evidence that partisan affective polarization is generally no greater in the United States than it is in many European multiparty systems. This article takes the comparative literature on affective polarization one step further by presenting the first comparative study on affective polarization that simultaneously uses, compares and combines a direct measure of affective polarization towards voters (using the inter‐party marriage measure) and an indirect measure of affective polarization towards parties (using the like/dislike of party measure) while accounting for the fa

12. Social Media Use and Political Engagement in Polarized Times. Examining the Contextual Roles of Issue and Affective Polarization in Developed Democracies

    Michael Chan, Jingjing Yi · 2024 · Political Communication · 33 citations

    ABSTRACT Studies addressing the normative questions of whether social media use positively or negatively affects citizens’ levels of democratic engagement and satisfaction with democracy have produced mixed findings. This study tests the proposition that political polarization plays an important contingent role in explaining these relationships. Combining Varieties of Democracy (VDEM) and World Values Survey (WVS) data, this study examines how issue polarization and affective polarization at the country level shape the relationships between social media use for political information and democratic outcomes in 27 developed democracies. The findings show divergent consequences of social media

13. The effects of disagreement and unfriending on political polarization: a moderated-mediation model of cross-cutting discussion on affective polarization via unfriending contingent upon exposure to incivility

    Han Lin, Yi Wang, J. Lee, et al. · 2023 · J. Comput. Mediat. Commun. · 30 citations

    Cross-cutting discussion is the foundation of deliberative democracy. However, previous research has reported inconsistent results regarding the effects of exposure to dissimilar perspectives on political polarization. This study aims to extend the literature by exploring how cross-cutting discussion influences affective polarization through unfriending and how this indirect effect is contingent upon exposure to incivility. The study analyzes panel data from a two-wave online survey conducted in South Korea (N = 890). The results show a significantly positive indirect effect of unfriending, suggesting that cross-cutting discussion further reinforces affective polarization via unfriending.

14. A new regime divide? Democratic backsliding, attitudes towards democracy and affective polarization

    Theresa Gessler, Natasha Wunsch · 2025 · European Journal of Political Research · 26 citations

    Partisan‐based affective polarization has been posited as a key explanation for citizens' tolerance towards democratic backsliding, with voters more likely to overlook democratic violations conducted by in‐party candidates. Our study theorizes and empirically explores the reverse perspective on this relationship: focusing on the role of the opposition, we submit that backsliding may crystallize an affective dislike among opposition supporters towards the governing party and its supporters that stems from a regime divide over democracy itself. To probe the plausibility of this argument, we leverage original survey data collected in Hungary, where democratic backsliding under the Fidesz govern

15. Hate prompts participation: Examining the dynamic relationship between affective polarization and political participation

    Sangwon Lee, Jihyang Choi, C. Ahn · 2023 · New Media & Society · 12 citations

    Political participation has long been considered a cornerstone of democracy. While most studies on political participation have been grounded on a normative approach, which assumes that political participation is driven by positive civic actions, recent studies suggest that political participation is also driven by negative forces such as overconfidence in knowledge and partisan communication flows. This article builds on the latter line of research by exploring the role of affective polarization on political participation. While this line of research is not new, it suffers from a lack of clear causal order. This study relies on three-wave panel data collected during the 2022 Korean presiden

16. The Personal is Political: Political Attitudes, Affective Polarization and Fertility Preferences in Hong Kong

    A. Cheung, Lake Lui · 2024 · Population Research and Policy Review · 8 citations

    This study examines the relationship between political attitudes, affective polarization, and fertility preferences among married couples in Hong Kong. Using dyadic data from a representative household survey (N = 1586 heterosexually married adults), we investigate how individuals’ attitudes toward democracy and levels of affective polarization are associated with their fertility preferences. We also explore the influence of spouses’ political attitudes and affective polarization on one's fertility preferences. We found that individuals with stronger support for democracy have lower fertility preferences. This negative association between political attitudes and fertility preferences is furt

17. Affective polarization and democratic erosion: evidence from a context of weak partisanship

    Loreto Cox, Pedro Cubillos, Carmen Le Foulon · 2025 · Political Science Research and Methods · 6 citations

    Can the “us versus them” dynamic in politics undermine support for democracy even in the absence of strong party identification? While much is known about affective polarization in the USA, its impact on democratic commitment in other contexts remains understudied. We examine Chile’s 2022 plebiscite, where voters decided whether to approve or reject a new constitution amid low levels of party trust and identification. Through an experiment using an unobtrusive primer, we successfully induced short-term affective polarization, heightening animosity across multiple dimensions. Our findings show that individuals primed to this polarization significantly reduced their support for democracy, mi

18. Polarization and Democracy in Central Europe

    P. Guasti, Aleš Michal · 2025 · Politics and Governance · 6 citations

    This article examines the dual role of polarization in fostering political mobilization for and against democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Populist movements in this region often drive democratic decline, yet, notable cases, such as electoral victories in Czechia (2021) and Poland (2023), suggest that civil society can counter these trends. Following Schedler (2023), we perceive polarization as a fundamental democratic conflict about democratic norms and values. This study investigated how varying forms of polarization— ideological, affective, intransigent, and partisan sorting—affected the mobilization dynamics for and against democracy. We highlight that polarization affected mobiliz

19. Political polarization, legitimacy and democratic education

    Anniina Leiviskä · 2024 · Ethics and Education · 5 citations

    ABSTRACT Political polarization is often argued to be a major threat to democracy. This article examines whether the two different forms of polarization, ideological and affective, may risk some of the core assumptions of democratic legitimacy. The paper argues that ideological polarization is linked with increasingly radical ideological positions being accepted as legitimate contributions to democratic processes, which may lead to the erosion of the democratic culture of society. Affective polarization, in turn, presents a risk to the type of political collaboration that characterizes legitimate democratic processes. The article presents some remarks on how these forms of polarization could

20. Affective polarization and democratic identity: a comparison of Italy and Norway

    Simon Bein · 2025 · Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft · 3 citations

    On the one hand, political polarization is necessary for a plural democracy, which must never be satisfied with a permanent lack of alternatives regarding its central principles and values. On the other hand, polarization can become dysfunctional for democracy when the absoluteness of the rejection of political opponents leads to the endorsement of anti-democratic attitudes and measures, when politics is seen as a zero-sum game and the diversity of legitimate opinions, attitudes, and identities is neglected. The identity of democracy is to prevent this in the long run and to balance competing elements instead. Based on this premise, the article aims to explain why the extent of affective pol

21. Consecuencias inesperadas de la polarización política: Purga y reconstrucción de la Corte Constitucional en EcuadorUnintended consequences of political polarization: Purge and reconstruction of the Constitutional Court in Ecuador

    Julio Ríos Figueroa, Patricia Sotomayor Valarezo · 2025 · International Journal of Constitutional Law · 2 citations

    In this article we investigate the impact of affective polarization around the figure of Rafael Correa on the institutions of democracy, specifically on the Constitutional Court of Ecuador. We argue that this polarization led, first, to the purge of the Constitutional Court in 2018 causing a breakdown of the institutional order and stability that had been maintained since 2007. But the same polarization, in a second moment, also produced that the Court appointed after the purge had a different composition than the previous ones, with more diverse and innovative profiles. The new set of magistrates, in turn, initiated a transformation of the constitutional jurisprudence and the political ro

22. Fostering Open-Minded Political Engagement through Online Interscholastic Discussions: Toward Reducing Affective Political Polarization

    Brett L. M. Levy, Alina Lewis · 2025 · Democracy & Education · 1 citations

    This study explores how political discussions among diverse youth can support students’ open-minded political engagement. For this study, we collaborated with two teachers to adapt and enact instruction aimed at supporting students’ discussion of controversial issues across political, geographic, and cultural boundaries. During an instructional unit exploring various ways to strengthen our election system, students engaged in discussions with their classmates and with peers from another school via an online video discussion board. We collected data through observations and interviews. Our findings indicate that the instruction enhanced students’ understanding of their political bubbles and t

23. Intraparty and Interparty Political Disagreement as Predictors of Affective Polarization and Willingness to Engage in Interparty Contact: The Moderating Role of Political Difference Management Styles

    Tatsuya Suzuki, Alcides Velasquez, Yan Bing Zhang · 2023 · Communication Research · 1 citations

    Interpersonal political discussion is a normatively valued practice in a democracy, shaping polarizing attitudes and influencing future contact intentions in divided political landscapes. Applying social identity, intergroup contact, and conflict management styles theories, in this article, we investigate the associations between political disagreement with in-party and out-party members, affective polarization, and willingness to engage in interparty contact. Additionally, we examine how these associations are contingent upon individuals’ styles for managing political disagreement. Using cross-sectional survey data (N = 732), we found that better quality of disagreement with out-party membe

24. Winners’ Restraint or Affective Majoritarianism? Elections, Polarization and Political Support

    Damjan Tomic, Sergi Ferrer, Enrique Prada, et al. · 2026 · Comparative Political Studies · 1 citations

    Research on the impact of elections on attitudes toward democracy has focused primarily on satisfaction with democracy. Building on this, we analyze how winning and losing elections, along with affective polarization, shapes citizens’ support for norms of democratic restraint and consent. We propose that partisan animus weakens the “reservoir of goodwill” that helps citizens accept democratic norms that may go against their self interest. Using a comparative study of 35 elections and two quasi-experimental case studies, we find that while differences between winners and losers in their support for norms of restraint and consent can be statistically significant, they are substantively small c