Divided over democracy

Organised by

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

Scholars warn that affective polarisation—the tendency of citizens to dislike or even loathe political opponents—undermines commitments to the principles and norms on which democracies are founded. Within the academic literature, speculation about the potential consequences of affective polarisation on democratic support is rife, but empirical evidence is mixed at best. This talk presents findings from three studies that systematically examine the relationship between affective polarisation and democratic support in Europe.

First, the findings reveal that this relationship is non-linear: only extremely high or low levels of affective polarisation are associated with diminished democratic support, whereas moderate levels correlate with stronger democratic commitments. Second, the study explores a mechanism based on negative reciprocity, arguing that affectively polarised citizens are more likely to reciprocate democratic violations by opposing parties. Third, it analyses how affective polarisation shapes the winner-loser gap in political support, showing that polarised electoral losers experience a steep decline in political support following electoral defeat. Taken together, these studies offer a nuanced understanding of when and how affective polarisation weakens democratic commitments and contribute to the broader debate on democratic resilience in polarised societies.