It’s not what they defend, it’s how the defend it: The relationship between partisan, ideological and emotional polarization in the Catalan context

Berta Barbet (UAB)

17th december, 13:00h, Aula 8 Facultat de Ciències Polítiques i Sociologia de la UAB or Teams (link)
The raise of populist and extremist options in elections in many developed countries’ democracies has generated a lot of attention to the structure of public attitudes and perceptions that might have made these options popular. In doing so, the literatura has usually used several concepts that are connected in not obvious ways. Generating several questions about what it means for public opinion to be polarised and how different logics of polarisation are connected among them, especially outside the broadly studied case of the US. Using data from the region of Catalonia, a region with high elite polarization in the recent years but very different political and social dynamics than the US, this article tests the link between five measures of polarization. It shows that attitudinal extremity, ideological sorting and partisan polarization are somehow associated among them, but they are very weakly linked to emotional polarisation and demonisation. The latter measures are more clearly associated with group threat perceptions than ideological considerations.
If you are interested in having the paper send an email to gr.dec@uab.cat