Hola y feliz Año Nuevo. This is Barbara, your guide to the latest cultural news from the Spanish-speaking world. Today, I’d like to share some thoughts about the word «polarisation».
Word of the year
The Fundación del Español Urgente (FundéuRAE), sponsored by the Real Academia Española and the news agency EFE, has chosen «polarisation» as its word of the year 2023. The choice gives much food for thought, not just in linguistic terms but also concerning the sociological phenomenon it describes.
The foundation justifies its choice due to the strong presence of the term in the media and the evolution of meaning it has undergone. When the term was included in the RAE’s dictionary in 1884, it was defined in strict physical terms as actions and effects concerning the poles. In 1985, an addition was added to that definition, not retained in the current edition, which gave clues as to how the term was beginning to spread beyond physics: «In the language of economics, the process by which most industries are concentrated in certain areas of a territory». By the 2001 edition, polarise - and, consequently, polarisation - had spread to the general language after acquiring the meaning of «orienting in two opposing directions», already used in a wide variety of fields.
The foundation gives examples of usage on a global level: the polarisation of society, the polarisation in politics, the polarisation of public opinion, the polarisation of opinions expressed on social media, etc. In this sense, polarisation is used to convey the meaning of a divide into two big blocks or positions, a binary scheme so to say. The word was chosen from twelve candidates, several of them related to technology and the environment or natural disasters: amnistía, ecosilencio, euríbor, FANI, fediverso, fentanilo, guerra, humanitario, macroincendio, seísmo y ultrafalso.
Polarisation in Spanish society
The presence of the word polarisation in the media can be seen worldwide, but are there any indicators that give us a hint that polarisation is also an increasingly domestic issue within Spain?
When we have a look at public opinion in Spain and what they consider their main problem, we cannot immediately conclude that Spain suffers from political or societal polarisation.
Spain has ongoing economic worries, as the survey above shows, mostly due to the high unemployment rate while wages have been eaten up by inflation. However, Spain has proved to be a beacon of stability in the last few years. During the pandemic, there seemed to be a comparably high societal consensus about the emergency measures taken by the government. When the war in Ukraine began and inflation started to rise, Spain was at the forefront of protecting its citizens’ purses with economic measures, like promoting cost-free public transport, lowering the sales tax, etc.
However, when I read social media and the comments in Spanish newspapers, the polarisation within society is evident. The general tone is aggressive, with little chance for nuances or the willingness to accept that both sides might have their point. This is not just a subjective impression from my side. The Democracy Report 2022 concludes that social unrest and the concatenation of crises have made Spain one of the 30 countries where political polarisation has grown the most in the last decade. The Center for Economic Policy & Political Economy (ESADE) comes to the same conclusion. Polarisation in Spain has increased, while people are more divided by ideology and identity than by public policy. Here is a translation of the executive summary from the report (linked above), authored by Luis Miller:
Spain has been experiencing a growing affective and ideological polarisation for years: Spain's political parties are increasingly far apart in their ideological and territorial position and the feelings of voters of one party towards the others are among the most negative in the world.
However, Spain is much more polarised on identity issues (ideological or territorial) than on specific public policies. In the data analysed, ideological and territorial polarisation is two to three times higher than polarisation around taxes and immigration, about six times higher than polarisation around public health care, and about fifteen times higher than the non-existent polarisation around public services.
Concerning measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the available data from the first wave of the pandemic indicate that preferences for which policies are most effective in combating the pandemic do not differ across ideological groups.
The data shown in the report has an important implication for improving public debates: talking about specific policies can help to defuse the tension that has been growing at the ideological and territorial levels.
From the top of my hat, I can think of two instances that make clear how emotional and ideological the current polarisation is and how much it can hurt society as a whole. The two mainstream political parties of the country, PP and PSOE, rather prefer to talk to more extreme parties than talk to each other about important constitutional matters. The many violent reactions in the streets to the new government’s plan to grant amnesty to Catalan separatists is a good second example of identitarian polarisation (I was actually thinking that «amnistía» would win the race for word of the year). I could go on: People fight less over topics regarding public welfare but over ideology.
What can we do?
What a pity! After all, Spain is still the second-best country to live in according to InterNations (following Mexico). As the report by Luis Miller suggests, focusing on specific policies when building arguments might help a little to reduce polarisation. Yet, it requires an openness to listen to the arguments of others. How can this be reached if nobody wants to commit to moderation? Involving citizens on various levels in political decision-making might be a way to foster these debates that aim at overcoming the real issues Spanish society is facing: youth unemployment, negative climate effects (the drought in Catalunya or the South, for example), and the weakness of the education system.
The initiative España Mejor seems to head in this direction. It sounds a little bit like the Swiss Operation Libero, a transpartisan movement in Switzerland that promotes ideas for an open and liberal society.
Nuestro objetivo es canalizar la frustración de los ciudadanos y convertirla en acción. Aprovechar el talento y trabajar juntos para una España Mejor.
Translation: We aim to channel citizens' frustration and turn it into action. Harnessing talent and working together for a Better Spain.
I also think that media and tech companies have to recognize their responsibility for the increased polarisation. Without their aggressive hunt for clicks, polarisation would not be where it is right now. Without a renewed business model and a clear commitment to ethics, polarisation will continue to rise.
Do you have any ideas on how to fight polarisation? Or do you think polarisation is a positive development because tough decisions require clear-cut positions?
This is all for today. I will be back with vol. 55 in February, probably with some new podcast suggestions.