How Polarised are Citizens? Measuring Ideology from the Ground up
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9713795 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mirko Draca (University of Warwick, corresponding author), Carlo Schwarz (0000-0002-8513-1506, Bocconi University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 134 |
| Issue | 661 |
| Pages | 1950-1984 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Economic Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ej/ueae010 |
| OpenAlex | W4392775015 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 69 |
We investigate whether the ideological polarisation of citizens has increased in Western democracies. We propose a novel methodology to identify individual ideologies by applying latent Dirichlet allocation to political survey data. This approach indicates that questions related to confidence in institutions play a leading role in defining citizen ideologies, in addition to the questions associated with the traditional left-right scale. We decompose the shift in ideological positions across the population over time and measure polarisation. This reveals evidence of a ‘disappearing centre’ in a sub-group of countries with citizens shifting away from centrist ideologies into anti-establishment ‘anarchist’ ideologies. This trend is especially pronounced for the United States
Cartography · Geography · Ideology · Latent Dirichlet allocation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scale (ratio · Sociology · Topic model · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Media Influence and Politics
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| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |