Polarisation in Southern Europe: Elites, Party Conflicts and Negative Partisanship
Open accessAbstract
The article complements our collection of studies of politics in polarised Southern Europe by offering a cross-regional comparison. Following a brief excursion into how polarisation in Southern Europe has been addressed in the existing literature, the focus zooms in on three country case studies. After showing the differential evolution of polarisation in Italy, Greece and Spain over recent decades, the story is brought up to date with an examination of the specific ways in which polarisation played out in the 2019 election cycle. marked by the Catalan conflict in Spain, the Macedonian name question in Greece and the polarising role of Matteo Salvini in Italy. The article concludes with comparative insights into the current polarisation drives in the three countries.
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All of this parallels polarization trends in other regions, including Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.
“All of this parallels polarization trends in other regions, including Europe338, the Middle East11, and Latin America11.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [338]
Cites
The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States
Iyengar, S., Lelkes, Y., Levendusky, M., Malhotra, N., & Westwood, S. J. (2019) · Annual Review of Political Science · doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034 · Cited by 3,317 · see citing works
Iyengar, S., Sood, G., & Lelkes, Y. (2012) · Public Opinion Quarterly · doi:10.1093/poq/nfs038 · Cited by 2,748 · see citing works
Affective Polarization in Multiparty Systems
Wagner, M. (2021) · Electoral Studies · doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102199 · Cited by 593 · see citing works
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How Ideology Fuels Affective Polarization
Rogowski, J. C., & Sutherland, J. L. (2016) · Political Behavior · doi:10.1007/s11109-015-9323-7 · Cited by 503 · see citing works
American Affective Polarization in Comparative Perspective
Gidron, N., Adams, J., & Horne, W. (2020) · doi:10.1017/9781108914123 · Cited by 481 · see citing works
Mass Partisan Polarization: Measuring a Relational Concept
Lauka, A., McCoy, J., & Firat, R. B. (2018) · American Behavioral Scientist · doi:10.1177/0002764218759581 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
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Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts
Jost, J. T., Baldassarri, D. S., & Druckman, J. N. (2022) · Nature Reviews Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44159-022-00093-5 · Cited by 276 · see citing works
Domínguez Benavente, P., Benítez Espinosa, A., Carrasco Ariza, B., & Pamies, C. (2024) · Revista Internacional de Sociología · doi:10.3989/ris.2024.82.3.23.1258 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Finalmente, la cultura política española ha terminado de dar el paso desde el consenso hacia una política de bloques que ha favorecido la polarización (Bosco y Verney 2020: 269).”
Cuéllar Rivero, R. (2026) · Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas · doi:10.5477/cis/reis.194.25-44
“…Sood y Lelkes, 2012), la deslegitimación política del adversario y de las instituciones en contextos de un ade-cuado funcionamiento democrático (Bosco y Verney, 2020; Rojo-Martínez y Crespo-Martínez, 2023), la mayor capacidad de se-lección informativa en las redes sociales y la proliferación…”
- Authors
- Bosco, A., & Verney, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Florence (IT)
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR)
- Corresponding author
- Bosco, Anna
- ORCID
- Verney, Susannah
- Venue
- South European Society and Politics
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-10-01
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 3-4
- Pages
- 257-284
- ISSN
- 1360-8746 (ISSN-L)
- 1743-9612
- OpenAlex
- W3198537445
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 3
- FWCI
- 12.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- South European Society & Politics (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Florence Research (University of Florence) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Populism, Right-Wing Movements
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › European Union Policy and Governance
- Keywords
- political polarization, Southern Europe, elites, party conflict, negative partisanship, 2019 elections, Catalan independence conflict, Matteo Salvini, Italy, Greece, Spain, regional comparison
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