How to Depolarize

A new framework for understanding and combating polarization in contemporary democraciesPolitical polarization occurs when a society divides into entrenched, hostile, and persistently antagonistic camps. Can a democracy withstand such pressure? In How to Depolarize, political scientists Jennifer McCoy and Murat Somer call this kind of extreme and tenacious division pernicious polarization and offer both a new way to understand it and methods for countering it. Pernicious polarization, they explain, does not emerge on its own; it is created by political entrepreneurs who deliberately choose divisive strategies that exploit societal anxieties and democratic weaknesses to advance their own agendas. Their opponents then respond in kind. To combat this, McCoy and Somer propose a different kind of politics, equally strategic but constructive rather than pernicious.Drawing on contemporary and historical examples from around the world, with the United States and Turkey as detailed case studies, McCoy and Somer identify three major societal fault lines that fuel the phenomenon. Issues of national identity and nationalism often result in an “us versus them” outlook; democratic backsliding turns the defense of democracy itself into a political dispute; and economic inequality creates grievances that fuel pernicious polarization both directly and indirectly. McCoy and Somer argue that these fissures can be transformed from sources of division into foundations for renewal. They outline two strategies for depolarization: active depolarization, which works to defuse divisive issues and reactivate shared bonds; and transformative repolarization, which—perhaps counterintuitively—strategically repolarizes society around reconstructive programs including reforms that will eventually foster unity rather than division.