Geographic Identities and Affective Polarization in Norway

How do geographic cleavages shape political grievances and lead to affective polarization? Previous scholarship has measured place-based resentment in the American context. In this regard, resentment of rural citizens vis-à-vis urbanites has been empirically linked to support for right-wing populists, including the election of Trump. On the other side of the Atlantic, scholars have linked rural grievances to the leave campaign in the Brexit referendum. We build on this literature to study the effects of geographic cleavages on affective polarization in the Norwegian context. Taking a social identity approach to studying geographic cleavages, we leverage original survey data from the Norwegian Citizen Panel. We ask a series of questions to measure the strength of in-group attachments to rural or urban lifestyles, as well as attachment to Oslo or other geographic regions. We also gauge people’s attitudes towards geographic out-groups. We take the difference between in-group attachment versus out-group attitudes to measure affective polarization in regard to geographic identities. We then explore how geographic polarization affects partisanship, policy preferences, and perceptions of political elites. Our work contributes to comparative literature on post-material cleavages and polarization that are changing the nature of electoral competition in advanced democracies.