Mind the Gap! A Cross-National Panel Study on the Relation Between Ideological Extremism and the Two Measures of Affective Polarisation

Abstract

Foundational research on affective polarisation conceptualised the concept as polarised sentiments between partisan citizens (voter affective polarisation). However, later research focused on polarised sentiments towards parties (party affective polarisation). Levels of the latter tend to be higher than levels of the former, but not always to the same degree. Put differently, there exists a gap between the two measures that varies in size: the PAP-VAP gap. This paper investigates whether this gap closes as citizens become more ideologically extreme. Multi-level analysis of panel survey data from five different countries from the TRI-POL project confirms that ideological extremism negatively affects the gap between voter affective polarisation and party affective polarisation. As ideological extremism increases, voter affective polarisation is affected more strongly than party affective polarisation, thereby narrowing the gap. This effect is consistent across all countries in this study. These findings have implications for the measurement of affective polarisation, and suggest that ideological demand fuels the extension of party dislike to partisan dislike. Key words: voter affective polarisation, party affective polarisation, ideological extremism, expressive partisanship, instrumental partisanship.