Polarizzazione e partigianeria

As political divisions become sharper in societies around the world, many see the conditions for democracy as undermined. This paper starts by examining the concept of ‘polarisation’, central to many of these diagnoses. Along with a series of analytical assumptions, anxieties about polarisation express a normative ideal – politics as moderation. We explore the appeal and the limits of this ideal, and why democracy needs immoderates, more specifically partisans. If contemporary democracy is ailing, the problem lies not with polarisation as such – the symptom of a status quo challenged – but with the challenges that face political parties today.