Economic Crisis and Political Polarization-A Challenge to Civic Culture?

Yilmaz Esmer

《Taiwan Journal of Democracy》 11卷1期 (2015/07) Pp. 129-146

並列摘要

This essay uses survey data collected from representative samples of parliamentarians of Chile, Germany, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, and Turkey at two points in time coinciding with shortly before the start of the global financial/economic crisis and well after the impact was felt on a broad international scale. Comparing the mean differences between two major political parties in each country between the two points in time over nine indicators, we find support for the hypothesis that the ideological rift (as measured on a ten-point left-right ideology scale) between the parliamentarians of the two parties has widened. Yet, the picture is mixed with regard to the indicators of economic ideology, with Poland and Turkey standing out as the most polarized and Chile as the least polarized. However, the degree of polarization among parliamentarians does not reach alarming levels and cannot, as of the time of the survey, be interpreted as posing a threat to democratic values.

並列關鍵字

Polarization ； democratic culture ； democratic values ； civic culture ； elites ； parliamentarians

參考文獻

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