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Polarisation of North America
American Democracy
American Democracy
Interplaying factors that endanger American democratic order:
extreme political polarization
deep divisions over who belongs to the political community
the erosion of democratic norms
Pupulism and Polarization
Pupulism and Polarization
In United States, Trump's populism connects with deep political polarization. Democrats and Republicans have become more hostile and less willing to compromise. Citizens are starting to see those from other party as a threat and not just the opponent. Polarization also spread beyond politics( media, education, social life)
Deteriorating system of the governance
Deteriorating system of the governance
The two parties have moved further apart and there are no moderates left
Congress has become more focused on party battles than solving problems
Presidents have gained more power, esepecially through executive orders
Trump entered the office during this period of institutional weakness and made it even worse.
Race, belonging and inequality
Race, belonging and inequality
Trump's campaign used racial and cultural resentment to gain support. His rethoric towards immigrants and minorities brought back racial and national divisions back to the center of political life.
Consequences for democracy: The basic idea of equal participation breaks down.
Can American democracy recover?
Can American democracy recover?
According to the authors, yes.
But right now it is under real threat, if it doesn't change US will end up with just the appearance of democracy
What is liberal democracy?
What is liberal democracy?
Combination of 3 ideas:
Republicanism ⇒ government gets its power from the people
Democracy ⇒ everyone is equql and majority decides
Liberalism ⇒ there are limits on power and individual rights are protected
True liberal democracy NEEDS ALL THREE.
Populism accepts first two - but argues with the last one.
What is Populism?
What is Populism?
According to Galston:
populists define "the people" narrowly
society devided into "the good people" and "the corrupt elite"
It gies against the idea od pluralism
How populism threatens Liberal Democracy?
How populism threatens Liberal Democracy?
Erosion of pluralism
Weakening of institutions
Concentration of power
Polarization
"Decision-making in diverse societies requires compromise - which is hard to achieve if one believes the other is evil or illegitimate."
Why poulism has grown?
Why poulism has grown?
economic dislocation
cultural anxiety
identity and imigration pressures
What can be done?
What can be done?
Author believes that liberal democracy can survive only if we act!
Defend liberal institutions
Engage legitimate concerns
Promote inclusive growth
Rebulid trust and pluralism
Comparison of Polarization in the U.S. and Canada
Possible Framework with Guiding Questions
1. Institutional Factors: How do the political system, party structure, and electoral rules shape polarisation? Do courts, provinces/states, or the press serve as checks and balances?
2. Socioeconomic Factors: How do inequality, education, or urban–rural divides contribute to division or cohesion?
3. Cultural & Identity Factors: What role do ethnicity, religion, immigration, or national identity play in shaping political conflict?
4. Media & Information: How do social media, partisan media, or misinformation influence public opinion and trust?
5. Resilience Mechanisms: Which institutions, traditions, or civic practices help resist polarisation and protect democracy?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15qQe0kqnoXK1RY4YgcyUDoSXxzGvTUD4WbBgrv8M2fo/edit?usp=sharing
Some new data
Fig 2. Party identification of socio economic groups
Polarization in the U.S. is not just ideological – it mirrors social and economic divides.
Party, ethnicity and income strongly separate groups in the ideological space, while education, age and gender are less relevant.
Whites, high-income, college-educated lean Republican; POC, low-income, no-college lean Democrat, showing overlapping social factors reinforce political alignment.
But it seems to be even more complicated:
The Leipziger Authoritarianism Study suggests that subjective perception of one’s political and economic situation matters more than actual income.
Feeling politically powerless or ignored leads to alienation from democracy and can foster right-wing extremist attitudes (Decker et al., 2023).
It’s not the individual’s own economic hardship, but the perceived decline of the national or collective economy, that drives discontent.
According to Abts & Rogenhofer (2024), a threatened group position and a sense of powerlessness produce resentment and openness to populism.
⇒Democracy erodes not only through economic divisions, but through a sense of deprivation — when citizens lose confidence in their ability to influence political or economic outcomes.
⇒This dynamic can be observed both in Germany and the United States, even though the cultural contexts differ.
Open Debate
Hypothesis: The United States is not simply divided by opinion, but by social and percieved realities. People with vastly different material conditions and cultural experiences live in separate worlds – and vote accordingly.
Follow-up questions:
To what extent do income, ethnicity and social background drive polarization more than policy differences? Are political disagreements really about values, or about lived realities?
Are we addressing the real challenges of political polarization if we focus only on ideology and education?
If social and economic divisions continue to deepen, are we witnessing a transformation of democracy itself – toward a system that favors elites, wealth, or certain communities over others? And: Can a democracy function sustainably without a certain amount of equality?
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