Political Party Polarization Analysis

Political party polarization is a topic of great interest to political scientists. There is a myriad of research on the subject that explores both its generalities and specifics, from explanations of how a party system can become polarized to attempts to quantify levels of polarization in particular nations. In his article “The Quality and the Quantity of Party Systems,” Russell J. Dalton defines the phenomenon as reflecting “the degree of ideological differentiation among political parties in a system” (Dalton 2008, p. 900). According to this definition, a high level of polarization would mean a high degree of differentiation among the parties, and a low level a low degree. In my research, I have found that Israel provides a particularly …show more content…
In general elections, the electorate votes for a party. However, someone has to determine the order in which candidates are listed on the ticket, because the order in which they are listed determines who receives the seats that the party wins. For many years, party lists were put together by party leadership. As a result, those most loyal to the party were listed at the top of the ticket. In 1992, the Labour party was the first to establish a primary system. This granted to party members the ability to choose the order in which the candidates would be listed, and other parties began to follow suit shortly thereafter. Though party primaries did make the process more democratic by providing a larger number of people with the opportunity to participate and have a say, it also led to an increase of polarization. Reuven Y. Hazan and Gideon Rahat (2000) assert that following the introduction of primaries, Knesset members (MKs) “were no longer assured a future in politics by being loyal team players; instead, they were forced to stand out and be recognized – not by the party leaders but by the party members” (Hazan and Rahat 2000, p.1328-29). Being loyal to the party leaders likely entailed towing the party line, but in order to stand out to party members, MKs can be forced to take more extreme stances on issues than they may have taken …show more content…
Some scholars argue that this is not necessarily a bad thing; those of this school of thought say that polarization can provide the voter with more meaningful choices, for example. However, polarization can also have destabilizing effects. For instance, voters may become frustrated with their party’s constant movement on issue positions, and decide not to vote in elections. If enough voters feel this way, there can be an overall decrease in voter turnout. Nevertheless, Israel’s political rules and procedures are everchanging, and so perhaps we will eventually see reforms that resolve the negative implications of