Most Spanish people are fed up with politics. It could be said that this statement also represents the state of mind of the country ten, twenty, and eighty years ago, and there is indeed a reason why this boredom continues as time goes by. But other countries have not done this, and new elements have emerged that make the current political crisis feel different.

That is the content of this book, what is special about returning this issue to politics. The main thesis of the book is that Spanish society is increasingly divided, not only on an ideological level, but also on other levels that do not occupy much space in the news, such as beliefs, values, emotions or desires about what we want in politics. become. Spanish citizens were divided into increasingly compact ideological blocs, and this created fertile ground for confrontation, first between political elites and, later, if there was no solution, between citizens. There are too many examples of countries that we think are still democratic and are on the verge of civil conflict for us to ignore the worst consequences of increased political confrontation in Spain.

I want to begin my account of Spain’s growing political divisions with the least visible part of polarization: the alignment of Spaniards’ ideological and political divisions with other social divisions, such as religion or preferences for certain public policies. Others begin with the most visible parts of contemporary political conflict: increasing bad behavior in politics, humiliation, delegitimization or dehumanization of political opponents, lack of agreement or tension. I’ll get to all that later, but first I want to explain why I started with ideological and social differences. Bad behavior in politics is especially dangerous in situations where society is divided based on competing political identities.

The problem is not partisan competition, even when it is harsh and unpleasant, but on the contrary, if society is divided into blocks that are homogeneous in ideological and social terms, then anger will grow and reach personal problems, which I will mention in the points third. that chapter personal identity. Ideological divisions create the right backdrop for political parties to focus on identity, we are ahead of them. Today Spanish society is much better prepared to face identity conflicts, for example between left and right wings, compared to a decade ago.

Partisan politics becomes an important part of our identity in this context, and it magnifies many psychological and social tendencies. For example, many studies have shown that polarization reduces the desire to reach compromise, also reduces the influence of objective information on the formation of our opinions, increases all kinds of social inequalities and can even worsen the economic situation. Ultimately, the problem is that, in a divided country, politics is no longer about achieving the best collective outcome, but about achieving the best collective outcome. obtain. The goal is for our people to win, even though this must be borne by the entire community. Victory is not about new individual or social conquests, but fundamentally about who wins the game.

Today Spanish society is much better prepared to face identity conflicts, for example between left and right wings, compared to a decade ago.

Once politics becomes a matter of identity, it is very difficult to reverse this trend, because humans are designed for conflict. In fact, from a psychological point of view, humans are victims of two drives that may seem contradictory: drive for inclusivity and exclusivity. The formation of an exclusive political identity allows us to satisfy both of these drives at the same time. We feel part of a homogenous political group and, at the same time, we exclude political opponents who are now our enemies. Ultimately, we will reach a situation where we would prefer widespread evil if our enemies were even worse. It’s all about who wins and who loses.

The evidence we have for increased political confrontation in the sphere of affect and emotion in Spain is limited, but if anything, it points in the same direction as the ideological differences indicated above. One of the few comparisons we can make is regarding the feelings that the leaders of the various parties aroused among the public. Since 2011, the difference between the positive feelings we have toward party leaders we identify with and the feelings we have toward leaders of other parties we do not identify has increased.

Specifically, this difference increased by 30 percent between 2011 and 2015, and although this indicator of polarization decreased slightly in 2019, it was still 20 percent greater than in 2011. In fact, the largest difference in the last twenty-five years between feelings raised by our own leaders and others occurred in the elections of 2015 and April 2019. In a decade in which ideological and social differences have increased so much, confrontation at the level of feelings has also increased. Not only are two political-ideological blocs being formed with which citizens are increasingly identified exclusively, but also sentimental enmity between two blocks.

We are not an island

The increasing ideological and emotional divisions in Spanish politics are no exception in the international context. These five recent examples are especially valuable. On Thursday, June 23 2016, 52 percent of participants in the referendum regarding the permanence of the election great Britain in the European Union, they voted in favor of leaving the European Union and 48 percent voted in favor of remaining in the European Union. Since then, British politics is divided, changes of government continue to occur, the British economy is filled with dark clouds in 2023 and opinion polls predict that the Conservative Party, defenders of Brexit, will sink electorally in an unprecedented way.

The increasing ideological and emotional divisions in Spanish politics are no exception in the international context: England, the United States, Argentina, Chile or Brazil are other examples.

On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, followers of outgoing president Donald Trump attacked and occupied Congressional headquarters United States of America. The attack points to something that is being discussed more and more openly in the North American country: the possibility of a civil conflict pitting two parties ideologically at odds with each other.

On Thursday, September 1 2022, an assailant tried to shoot the Vice President Argentina, Cristina Kirchner. All commentators blame the extreme polarization that has existed for decades in the country and is known as extreme polarization crack.

On Sunday, September 4 2022, 62 percent of participants rejected the text of the new constitution proposed by the national convention in Chilli. The main conclusion from this rejection, also among supporters of progressive president Gabriel Boric, was that the proposed new constitution was too left-leaning for the majority of Chilean voters.

Finally, on Sunday, October 30, 2022, candidate Jair Bolsonaro, despite facing obstacles, won more than 49 percent of the vote in the presidential election in Brazil. Despite Lula da Silva’s victory and democratic change of government, South America’s most populous country is still divided between two competing political ideologies that threaten to question the election results and the legitimacy of the democratic system.

These five events were responses to different countries and different historical situations, but they have all been shown to be examples of what we now call political polarization. Of course, Spain is not an island and what I will tell you in this book is reflected in many other countries and regions of the world. We are facing a new chapter in history whose key lies in political and social divisions. This is the time crackas the Argentines graphically nicknamed it.

Extract from the book’Polarized, politics that divides us‘ (Deusto, 2023) by Luis Miller.