Political polarisation and the extension of government: a revisited concept

This article problematises conceptualisations of political polarisation and offers a new concept of it as a device of power. Thus defined, ‘political polarisation’ combines insights from governmentality studies and the concept of antagonism to identify what constitutes as polarised politics. First, the article shows two limitations of existing conceptualisations of polarisation: an overemphasis on partisan identity and the lack of considerations of dynamics of power in shaping politics. Then, it offers an alternative approach that pays due heed to these dynamics, by focusing on three attributes of polarised politics: the visible interactions between antagonistic discourses, the logic behind politics, and the formation of the polarised subject. By doing so, this new concept is able to reveal polarisation, including its dynamics and mechanism of reproduction.