Does polarization increase participation? A systematic literature review and meta-analysis
Does polarization increase participation? A systematic literature review and meta-analysis (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773925000116) was written by Marta Kołczyńska in 2025. It was published in European Political Science Review.
This review of literature is aimed at studies which treat participation in political processes as the outcome and polarization as the predictor. Studies are partitioned by...
- unit of analysis: individuals vs systems
- electoral vs non-electoral participation
Notably there is no research on the effect of affective polarization on non-electoral participation at the system level.
Through meta analysis of the studies, and through funnel plots and heterogeneity analysis, the author demonstrates evidence of publication bias. Assuming there is bias, there is strong evidence for a positive effect of polarization in the category of affective-individual-electoral research. On the other hand, evidence for a positive effect in the category of ideological-system-electoral research can be entirely explained by bias.