Partisan conflict takes a heavy toll on civil society as well, often leading to the demonization of activists and human rights defenders. Nearly three-quarters would not even want to do business with such a person. Turkey is a particularly jarring example: almost eight out of ten people there would not want their daughter to marry someone who votes for the party they most dislike. Polarization also reverberates throughout the society as whole, poisoning everyday interactions and relationships. Attacks on the judiciary, for example, only diminish its capacity to arbitrate conflict and heighten distrust between the opposing sides. These consequences generate a vicious cycle of rising polarization. Perhaps most fundamentally, polarization shatters informal but crucial norms of tolerance and moderation-like conceding peacefully after an electoral defeat-that keep political competition within bounds. In presidential systems, it frequently leads to the abuse of executive powers and promotes the toxic view that the president represents only his or her supporters, rather than the country as a whole. It reduces legislatures either to gridlock or to a rubberstamp function. It routinely undermines the independence of the judiciary, as politicians attack the courts as biased or pack them with loyalists. Severe polarization damages all institutions essential to democracy. What happens to democracies when polarization intensifies? In the long term, however, the political rot that this causes frequently leaves voters disgusted with the traditional parties and fuels the rise of divisive populist figures, like Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. We also found that patronage and corruption-two decidedly antidemocratic practices-can temporarily reduce polarization by helping politicians build very big tents. Indeed, the growth of India’s middle class has led to rising support for polarizing Hindu nationalist narratives. Yet we found that in some places, such as India, it actually made things worse. You might expect, for instance, that a growing economy would ease polarization.
Global politics definition drivers#
Many other drivers of polarization struck us as surprising, even counterintuitive. In Turkey, for instance, the head of the main opposition party stoked tensions by calling on the military to oppose Erdoğan’s potential bid for the presidency in 2007. Opposition leaders often fan the flames as well by responding with antidemocratic and confrontational tactics of their own. They’ve aggravated tensions not only by demonizing opponents and curtailing democratic processes but also by pushing for radical changes-like a total ban on abortion in Poland.Īmplifying the effect of these divisive figures is the technologically fueled disruption of the media industry, especially the rise of social media. Figures like Narendra Modi in India, Jarosław Kaczyński in Poland, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey have relentlessly inflamed basic divisions and entrenched them throughout society (often with resounding electoral success). Particularly striking was just how decisive polarizing leaders often are. He is a leading authority on international support for democracy, human rights, governance, the rule of law, and civil society. Thomas Carothers is the senior vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
0 kommentar(er)
