Overlapping Polarization

Political polarization is on the rise in the world in recent times. Within this framework, previous literature has distinguished two types of polarization: ideological and affective. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is scant evidence on the potential interplay of these phenomena. Is there a natural order in which these two types of polarization develop? And, if so, do extreme affective attitudes always follow processes of ideological polarization? Moreover, what prevents some individuals from reaching out-group animadversion despite being ideologically polarized? In this paper, we aim at analyzing these two types of polarization by coining a new concept: that of overlapping polarization. By this term, we refer to the attitudes of those individuals that are polarized in both senses. The proposed paper will analyze the determinants of this overlapping polarization in two steps. In the first, we will focus on Spain and, by making use of the recently collected E-Dem dataset, we will examine the determinants of overlapping polarization not only in the classic left-right dimension but also in the highly salient territorial dimension. In the second part of the empirical analysis, we will resort to CSES data to study to what extent the determinants of overlapping polarization are the same across established democracies.