Political polarization database

The aim of the WP5 is to address the substantial and even fundamental changes regarding the sociopolitical and socioeconomic cleavages in European societies, including such trends as: erosion of old and emergence of new political cleavages; shift towards the axiological cleavage/s; radicalization of political attitudes and increased polarization; strengthening of ´bad civil society´; erosion of old identities and party alignments; emergence of new social movements and political parties; decline in party membership, individualization of citizens attitudes, etc. Analysis conducted in this WP will contribute to identifying and reflecting the most important emerging cleavages and polarizing trends related with the general trends of (de)globalization and (counter)cosmopolitism, as well as internal division between and among European regions and within the EU-member states societies (new and/or transformed socio-economic divisions, intergeneration conflicts, gender, new forms of nativism and nationalism etc.).

Research scope of this WP includes identifying the quantitative indicators for the comprehensive assessment of political polarization; review the secondary data sources databases of polarization indicators; completion of a comprehensive database of quantitative indictors for the 1990-2022 period and make it available for the public use; producing analytical report reflecting the long-term dynamics in polarization at the European, (macro)regional and national level; preparation of a policy paper specifying a set of policy recommendations aiming on weakening the political polarization and promoting the centripetal solutions; as well as presenting the outcomes to the scientific and policy-making community to obtain their constructive feedback (including NGOs, think-tanks etc.).

This database is a part of Work Package 5 – New identities and emerging cleavages – implications for political polarization, led by MUP-CZ (Team leader: Ladislav Cabada). While in D5.1 (Cabada & Charvát 2023) we presented basic contemporary theoretical reflections on polarization, new cleavages and identities, in this D5.2 we present a secondary dataset on the issue of polarization. The main aim of this output is to offer both TRUEDEM researchers and a wider group of academics and political actors’ insight into the possibilities and limitations of research on polarisation in relation to trust and trustworthiness. Within the TRUEDEM project, this output will be used primarily in the development of Deliverable D5.3, which is intended to reflect key trends in the evolution of polarization in a group of European democracies.

Citation: Brunner; B., Cabada, L., Charvát, J., Haerpfer, C. (2024). Long-term trends in political polarization (1990–2022). Working paper no. 5.2. TRUEDEM: Trust in European Democracies Project (www.truedem.eu).