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681 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 8 (2019)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0681 and id is 1 raw text is: Transformations through Polarizations and Global Threats to Democracy By MURAT SOMER and JENNIFER McCOY This volume collects and analyzes eleven country case studies of polarized polities that are, or had been, elec- toral democracies, identifying the common and differ- ing causal mechanisms that lead to different outcomes for democracy when a society experiences polarization. In this introduction, we discuss our goals for the vol- ume, the comparative logic we apply to the cases, our overall methodological approach, and the concepts that ground the analyses. The goal of this volume is to explore pernicious polarization, i.e., when and how a society divides into mutually distrustful us vs. them blocs, which endangers democracy. Accordingly, we discuss the effects of such polarization on democracies, and start building a foundation for remedies. In this introductory article, we highlight and explain the inher- ently political and relational aspects of polarization in general and pernicious polarization in particular, pre- sent the concept of formative rifts, and discuss how opposition strategies should be part of an explanation of severe polarization. Keywords: polarization; democracy; democratic ero- sion; populism; opposition strategies Our main interests in this volume of The ANNALS are to explore when and how societies become perniciously polarized and how such polarization affects democracy. Building on previous work (McCoy and Somer 2018), this collection also starts to build a foundation for remedies. We depart from a conventional defini- tion of political polarization that simply measures the distance between political parties and voters on policy issues or ideological stances. Instead, we explore political polarization that divides Murat Somer is a professor of political science and internalitonal relations at Koc University, Istanbul. He spcializes in comparative polis and democratization. His)r (earcl on polarization, religious and secular poli- tics, ethnic conflict and authoritarianism has appeared in books, book volumes, and journals such as Comparative Political Studies, American Behavioral Scientist, and Democratization. Correspondence: musomer@ku.edu.tr DOI: 10.1177/0002716218818058 ANNALS, AAPSS, 681, January 2019 8

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