IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/307747.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Mobilizing Effect of Party System Polarization. Evidence From Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Ellger, Fabio

Abstract

Does party system polarization mobilize voters? Polarization is increasingly shaping democratic competition across Europe. While often perceived to be negative, polarization can be an effective remedy against voter disengagement. This paper investigates two distinct, but often conflated mechanisms, which could explain why polarization leads to mobilization. Spatial polarization of parties diversifies electoral options at the ballot, while affective polarization mobilizes based on emotional considerations. This article then shows the link between polarization and turnout across 22 European countries. The results are complemented by a difference-in-differences analysis of German local elections. However, voting results alone do not inform about the mechanism at play. Survey data is used to show that negative affect appears to be the main driver of voter participation. Party polarization thus has ambivalent consequences for democracies: It mobilizes the electorate, but its effect is driven by negative emotions.

Suggested Citation

  • Ellger, Fabio, 2024. "The Mobilizing Effect of Party System Polarization. Evidence From Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 57(8), pages 1310-1338.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:307747
    DOI: 10.1177/00104140231194059
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/307747/1/Full-text-article-Ellger-The-Mobilizing-Effect.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00104140231194059?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher McConnell & Yotam Margalit & Neil Malhotra & Matthew Levendusky, 2018. "The Economic Consequences of Partisanship in a Polarized Era," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(1), pages 5-18, January.
    2. Hetherington, Marc J., 2001. "Resurgent Mass Partisanship: The Role of Elite Polarization," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(3), pages 619-631, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:osf:osfxxx:h967e_v2 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Kittel, Rebecca C., 2025. "Let's talk populist? A survey experiment on effects of (non‐) populist discourse on vote choice," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 64, pages 719-743.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hans Gersbach & Philippe Muller & Oriol Tejada, 2017. "A Dynamic Model of Electoral Competition with Costly Policy Changes," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 17/270, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    2. Gersbach, Hans & Jackson, Matthew O. & Muller, Philippe & Tejada, Oriol, 2023. "Electoral competition with costly policy changes: A dynamic perspective," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    3. Abel, Martin & Robbett, Andrea & Stone, Daniel F., 2024. "Partisan Discrimination in Hiring," IZA Discussion Papers 17540, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Ondrej Rolnik, 2022. "The influence of economic disparities of regions on political polarization in Czech Republic," MENDELU Working Papers in Business and Economics 2022-84, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    5. Lee, Barton E., 2022. "Gridlock, leverage, and policy bundling," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    6. Julia Azari & Marc J. Hetherington, 2016. "Back to the Future? What the Politics of the Late Nineteenth Century Can Tell Us about the 2016 Election," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 667(1), pages 92-109, September.
    7. Bayat, Ali & Goergen, Marc, 2025. "CEO political ideology and payout policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    8. Mark A. Pickup & Erik O. Kimbrough & Eline A. de Rooij, 2020. "Identity and the Self‐Reinforcing Effects of Norm Compliance," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(3), pages 1222-1240, January.
    9. Hsuan-Wei Lee & Yen-Ping Chang & Yen-Sheng Chiang, 2020. "Status hierarchy and group cooperation: A generalized model," Papers 2004.00944, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2020.
    10. Brent Simpson & Bradley Montgomery & David Melamed, 2023. "Reputations for treatment of outgroup members can prevent the emergence of political segregation in cooperative networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Mark D. Ramirez, 2009. "The Dynamics of Partisan Conflict on Congressional Approval," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 681-694, July.
    12. Stefan Krasa & Mattias Polborn, 2014. "Policy Divergence and Voter Polarization in a Structural Model of Elections," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(1), pages 31-76.
    13. James N. Druckman & Donald P. Green & Shanto Iyengar, 2023. "Does Affective Polarization Contribute to Democratic Backsliding in America?," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 708(1), pages 137-163, July.
    14. Otto Simonsson & Simon B Goldberg & Joseph Marks & Liuxin Yan & Jayanth Narayanan, 2022. "Bridging the (Brexit) divide: Effects of a brief befriending meditation on affective polarization," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(5), pages 1-9, May.
    15. Painter, Marcus & Qiu, Tian, 2021. "Political beliefs affect compliance with government mandates," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 688-701.
    16. Patrick J. Egan, 2020. "Identity as Dependent Variable: How Americans Shift Their Identities to Align with Their Politics," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(3), pages 699-716, July.
    17. Soojong Kim, 2019. "Directionality of information flow and echoes without chambers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-22, May.
    18. Umar, Muhammad & Su, Chi-Wei & Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas & Shao, Xue-Feng, 2021. "Bitcoin: A safe haven asset and a winner amid political and economic uncertainties in the US?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    19. Jung, Jihye & Mittal, Vikas, 2020. "Political Identity and the Consumer Journey: A Research Review," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 55-73.
    20. repec:osf:osfxxx:y79u5_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Valentino Larcinese, 2009. "Information Acquisition, Ideology and Turnout: Theory and Evidence From Britain," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 21(2), pages 237-276, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:307747. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.