Polarized pluralism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (September 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Polarized pluralism is a symptom of a sick two-party or multi-party political system. It was originally described by political philosopher Sartori, and defines a system where moderate views are replaced by polarized views.

In a typical two-plus, two-party, or multi-party system, the distribution of party power looks like a slightly skewed normal curve. Most of the country is moderate or moderate-leaning liberal or conservative. If the country suffers polarized pluralism, then the curve is more like a bimodal distribution, with the power at the far political left and right ends, and a severe dip in the middle; one side will have more influence than the other, creating a strong trend to follow them. The extremist group with the most control eventually gains full control of the state; compromises eventually become nonexistent, and the controlling power tramples the opposition on all issues.

Polarized pluralism was visible immediately preceding the Nazi era in Germany. The country had a strong support for communism, but a slightly but significantly stronger support for the Nazi party. Communism lies on the far left, while the Nazi party lies on the far right, associated with fascism.