The question is not whether polarization is dangerous, but the conditions under which it becomes violent.

Jeffrey Kopstein

Jeffrey Kopstein joins the Democracy Paradox to discuss when polarization turns violent. Drawing on his Journal of Democracy essay “When Polarization Turns Violent” and his book with Stephen Hanson, The Assault on the State, Kopstein explains why affective polarization, struggles over belonging, and the weakening or politicization of state authority can create the conditions for organized political violence. The conversation ranges from Charlottesville to lynching in the American South, pogroms in Eastern Europe, communal violence in India, and the rise of patrimonial leaders who treat the state as personal property rather than an impersonal rule-of-law institution.

The Democracy Paradox is made in partnership with the Kellogg Institute of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.

Read the full transcript here.

Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:20
From Disagreement to Hate - 2:55
Who Owns the Polity? - 13:51
When the State Steps Aside - 26:32
The Assault on the State - 36:10

Links:

Learn more about Jeffrey Kopstein.

Read his Journal of Democracy article "When Polarization Turns Violent.”

Learn more about his co-authored book The Assault on the State.

Learn more about the Kellogg Institute.

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