Constructing Political Divides: Identity and Polarization in Central and Eastern Europe

While political identities are central to understanding political conflict and polarization, our knowledge of how these identities form and function across different political contexts remains limited. Most scholarship foregrounds party identities, yet in many political systems, party identification may not be the primary basis for political group formation. Moreover, we know little about what kinds of politically relevant distinctions these identities reflect and fuel in different contexts - whether they mirror traditional socioeconomic and class divides, the universalist-particularist cleavages found in Western Europe, or the distinct forms shaped by country-specific political challenges such as democratic backsliding or geopolitical developments. This study investigates the psychological foundations of political group formation in Central and Eastern Europe, analyzing three countries with distinct (if overlapping) political trajectories after the end of the Cold War: the Czech Republic, a case of democratic stability with strong populist challengers; Hungary, where years of illiberal governance has fundamentally reshaped political competition; and Lithuania, which offers insights into a stable post-Soviet democratic political development. Using original survey data (n = 4,500), we analyze open-ended descriptions of political ingroups and opponents using computational text analysis to examine the most prominent dimensions of political identity construction. First, we investigate the cognitive architecture of political group representations: How do citizens naturally organize their political world when not primed with predetermined and limited categories? We examine whether they primarily construct political divisions through issues, personality traits, or group memberships, and what role political parties actually play in these spontaneous categorizations. This allows us to understand whether parties serve as natural organizing principles for political identity or whether other social categories take precedence. Second, we examine whether fundamental political divides, particularly the universalist-particularist distinction identified in Western Europe, emerge in citizens' identity constructions despite different institutional contexts. This is particularly intriguing given the glaring absence of new left parties in our case studies that typically anchor this cleavage in Western Europe. We analyze whether such divides manifest differently in our cases, potentially reflecting regional idiosyncrasies such as attitudes toward democratic institutions or geopolitical orientations. Third, we analyze how different modes of group categorization relate to political conflict and intergroup attitudes. By examining how different forms of group categorization and the political conflicts they embody connect to affective polarization and willingness to compromise, we can better understand the psychological mechanisms linking identity construction and political behavior. Our analysis advances the understanding of political identity formation in several important ways. The dual focus on the structure and substance of political identities helps illuminate how fundamental political divides manifest across different institutional settings, while offering crucial insights for understanding political conflict and polarization in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe as such.