How Polarised are Citizens? Measuring Ideology from the Ground up

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Draca, Mirko; Schwarz, Carlo
• 署名单位: University of Warwick; Bocconi University; University of Warwick
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueae010
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 1950-1984
• 关键词: political polarization; ECONOMICS; IDENTITY; POLICY; MODEL

摘要

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.