This project advances research on two themes that have emerged from contemporary scientific and public debates on challenges to democracy: political polarization and political participation. Extant research has found rising levels of polarization among mass publics, while the development of political participation since the millennium has been characterized by an almost universal decline in traditional, institutional forms but an increase in new, non-institutional forms of participation in several countries. The project deals with both important phenomena and explores their association.

Four research questions guide our project. These questions deal with (1) polarization as a predictor of participation; (2) differences in the effects of various aspects of polarization (ideological, affective, and partisan) on different forms of participation (institutional and non-institutional); (3) differences across national contexts characterized by different levels of democratic consolidation and participation traditions; and (4) differences between social groups in the effect of polarization on participation, in particular depending on individual value orientations as well as differences along various dimensions of political inequality.

This project uses quantitative methods and will be based on two types of surveys with which we will collect new data in the three project partner countries (Austria, Poland, and Slovenia): (1) a general population two-wave panel survey, and (2) surveys among participants in public demonstrations (protest surveys). In addition, we will conduct an extensive analysis of existing survey data, including age-period-cohort analyses of time-series cross-section datasets.

The project tackles a new research question that has not yet been systematically examined. The research question is addressed from a comparative perspective, by comparing between countries, over time, across social groups, and between different forms of polarization and participation. The comparative character of the project will involve systematic comparisons among the three project partner countries, among countries in Southern Europe and Latin America – owing to a collaboration with ongoing research projects – as well as other regions, owing to the coordination of our new measurement instruments with existing surveys. The project will also provide original, high-quality data to improve the infrastructure for social science research.