Hate Will Tear Us Apart: Affective Polarization in the Iberian Peninsula

The literature on ideological and affective polarization is no longer confined to bipartisan political systems and it has been growing at a rapid pace in Europe as well. With original survey data on Spain and Portugal, two countries that the literature describes as highly polarized, we set to determine if ideological polarization can produce affective polarization. In a second step, we disentangle affective polarization to understand its origin and direction at the party-voter dyad level. In particular, we observe whether high levels of affective polarization characterize the sentiment of mainstream partisans towards partisans of other mainstream parties or towards partisan of radical parties, and vice versa. After describing the characteristics of affective polarization in Spain and Portugal, our analysis focuses on two aspects: 1) Identifying affectively polarized citizens, their sociodemographic characteristics and attitudes; 2) Studying the behavior of affectively polarized citizens, including whether they vote and for which parties they vote.