‘Democracies Divided’: How to counter political polarization

This perspective comes from a really interesting article by Democracy Digest.

Political polarization is tearing at the seams of democracies around the world—from Brazil, India, and Kenya, to Poland, Turkey, and the United States, Carnegie Endowment scholar Thomas Carothers observes in his new co-edited volume (with Andrew O’Donohue), Democracies Divided: The Global Challenge of Political Polarization.

Democracies Divided identifies and examines the fissures that are dividing societies and the factors bringing polarization to a boil, Brookings adds. In nearly every case under study, political entrepreneurs have exploited and exacerbated long-simmering divisions for their own purposes—in the process undermining the prospects for democratic consensus and productive governance.

The book’s “lucid and incisive case studies vividly demonstrate the danger posed by intense polarization, and Carothers and O’Donohue urge creative initiatives to bridge political gulfs,” adds Journal of Democracy co-editor Larry Diamond, author of Ill Winds.

See full story here