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A research team of political scientists from three institutions, among them the University of Lucerne, has been researching affective polarization towards political parties and their political leaders. The team has now been awarded an international prize for its work.
The "2024 GESIS Klingemann Prize for the Best CSES Scholarship" was awarded for the article "Patterns of Affective Polarization toward Parties and Leaders across the Democratic World". It was written by Andres Reiljan (University of Tartu, Estonia), Diego Garzia and Frederico Ferreira Da Silva (both from the University of Lausanne) and Alexander H. Trechsel, Professor of Political Science specialising in Political Communication at the University of Lucerne, and was published in the internationally renowned political science journal American Political Science Review. The award is sponsored by the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) collaborative programme based at the University of Michigan (USA). As noted in the official announcement, the study “brings together, both in its theoretical discussion and empirical research design, two lines of research that have so far developed separately: polarization and personalization.”
As part of the research, the team compared party affective polarization (PAP) with leader affective polarization (LAP). Affective polarization refers to the phenomenon where voters experience positive emotions toward their preferred party and its leaders while harbouring negative emotions towards opposing parties and their representatives. Notably, the study found that in 37 of the 40 democratic countries analysed, affective polarization is lower towards leaders than it is towards parties. This highlights the central role political parties still play in shaping voters' political perceptions. An exception is the United States, where LAP surpasses PAP, a finding the researchers partly attribute to the country's presidential system.
The project received a CHF 6,000 contribution from the University of Lucerne's Research Commission and a CHF 2,000 contribution from the SNF “Eccellenza” assistant professorship of Diego Garzia.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055423000485 Andres Reiljan, Diego Garzia, Frederico Ferreira Da Silva, Alexander H. Trechsel; “Patterns of Affective Polarization toward Parties and Leaders across the Democratic World”; American Political Science Review, Volume 118, Issue 2, May 2024
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