Political Polarization: A Conceptual Survey

Laurence Whitehead

《Taiwan Journal of Democracy》 18卷1期 (2022/07) Pp. 5-26

摘要

This essay probes the logic and boundaries of the concept of polarization and tests its utility as compared to available overlapping and adjacent analytical frameworks. Until recently, political polarization was a marginal theme in the study of comparative politics, but under the pressure of unexpected events it lately has achieved a new centrality. Case studies have multiplied, and a growing inventory of indicators has become available. Some of the terminology used (for example, ＂pernicious＂) is notably denunciatory. It rests on underspecified theoretical foundations and its conceptual contours have received scant attention. Polarization's current appeal is largely due to its evident relevance to some recurrent and pressing aspects of political behavior that previously were overlooked. But it risks over-extension and conceptual stretching. This essay thus seeks to evade such pitfalls by specifying the morphology of the concept, identifying its scope conditions, and situating it in relation to proximate terms of comparative political analysis.

關鍵字

Autocratization ； conceptual morphology ； consociationalism ； democratic backsliding ； pacting ； pluralism ； political polarization ； totalitarianism

參考文獻

Francis Fukuyama, Identity: Contemporary Identity Politics and the Struggle for Recognition (London: Profile, 2019), xv.

Nolan McCarty, Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal, Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches (Boston: MIT Press, 2006)

Nolan McCarty, Polarization: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).

the V-Dem Democracy Report, 2022

the Bertelsmann Stiftung Publication BTI 2022: Democratic Resilience under Pressure