Affective polarisation and negative voting in comparative perspective

Organised by

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• EGPP: European Governance and Politics Programme

Since the early 2010s, a substantial number of studies have taken a novel approach to party polarisation that concentrates on partisan feelings. This concept is referred to as affective polarisation, defined by the extent to which voters have positive sentiments for their own party, while holding negative ones towards competing out-party/parties. Although the topic has mostly been studied in the USA, recent evidence has shown that affective polarisation is also present in parliamentary and multiparty systems, sometimes to an even greater extent than in two-party and presidential systems.

This presentation will offer novel evidence on affective polarisation in comparative and longitudinal perspective. It will also provide insights into the electoral consequences of affective polarisation through the lens of negative voting – defined as an electoral choice more strongly driven by negative attitudes toward the opposition than by positive attitudes toward one’s own choice.