Polarization and the uses of the past in Spain in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The phenomenon of polarization has received increased attention in recent years and, especially so, in the United States (see for example Iyengar et al., 2019). Spain has been pointed out lately as one of the countries with very high levels of increasing polarization, especially amongst the elites (Gidron et al., 2020; Simón, 2020). This is related to an increased party fragmentation and a new pattern of party competition after 2015. While politicians discourses have undoubtedly become more polarized, voters' polarization is evident in ideological and territorial aspects, but not so much in issues such as the economy or public policies (Penadés and Jurado, 2019; Simón, 2020; Miller, 2020). In parallel with growing polarization the issue of historical memory of the civil war and Franco's dictatorship has been on the forefront of the political agenda since the Law on Historical Memory was passed in 2007. The debates of the party elites around this law and related aspects have been no exception to general trend. Our objective is to analyze the evolution and characteristics of polarization around the political use of Spain's troubled past in the context just described. Our research questions are the following: Are the levels of polarization around the troubled past in Spain similar to those in other European countries that have suffered recent conflicts? Has polarization about this issue increased in the context of recent changes in the party system? Is society as polarized around this issue as party elites? We will analyze survey data collected in 9 countries in early 2020 as part of the H2020 RePast Project "Strengthening European integration through the analysis of conflict discourses: revisiting the past, anticipating the future", as well as data from the survey on historical memory carried out by the Centre for Sociological Research in 2008.