Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

The Effect of Crises in Polarization of Democracies

Publication Date

Spring 3-29-2024

College

Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, College of

Department

Political Science, Department of

BURS Faculty Advisor

Nathan Griffith

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Abstract

Polarization. This has been the primary political issue under the lights of the American news apparatus, on the mouth of virtually every analyst, politician, and democratic member. It is only fitting that this issue is analyzed in light of different aspects of what may be causing it. With the recent world recovery from the crisis that will likely—and hopefully—mark the 2020s and experiencing firsthand the effects that the pandemic has had on the American people, a question arose regarding the contribution of general crises—be it health, economic, or a result of natural disasters—on the polarization of democratic nations all around the world. Abstractly, there were two initial conflicting presumptions on how crises would impact polarization: (1) crises increase polarization within the masses by exacerbating the ideological differences between democratic factions; or (2) crises decrease polarization by allowing ideologically divided groups to come together in defense of common values against a common enemy. These two presumptions would then lead to a more intricate synthesis of: crises only increase polarization between groups that are polarized beyond a certain threshold, uniting various groups that already lean towards a general direction but also causing the auto-intensification of their political extremism, decreasing intra-party divides but increasing inter-party polarization. This paper analyzes multiple democracies around the world during times in which they experienced social crises, looking for the different variables that explain the shift in polarization of the population of the studied democratic nation. The research indicates there may be an effect of social media consumption and exposure to facts about the crisis unto the level of extremity of individuals towards their already-present biases, which would logically result in an increase in polarization when observed at the macro scale.

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