It’s Not Polarization; It’s the Radicalization of the Political Right | Perspectives on Politics | Cambridge Core

• Polarization has become the master concept for diagnosing contemporary democratic crises. The notion denotes three features: symmetry between parties, politics as an opinion space where positions diverge, and mutual repulsion between opposing camps. Yet none of these capture current realities. Across democracies, the central dynamic is not two poles drifting apart but the transformation of the political right into authoritarianism, norm breaking, and openness to political violence. Social democratic and center-right parties tend to respond in the opposite way from what “polarization” implies: by accommodating rightward. Attempts to salvage the polarization frame with modifiers (“asymmetric,” “affective,” “sectarian,” “pernicious”) concede these realities but risk hollowing out the concept’s definitional core. These limitations reveal a deeper misdiagnosis: when one party turns antidemocratic and illiberal, incivility and conflict are inevitable—but they are symptoms, not the root problem. Misdiagnosing them as the central issue leads to viewing civility and compromise as remedies, thereby risking the legitimation of authoritarian actors. This article proposes an alternative lens: the radicalization of the political right. Developed in the study of extremism, the radicalization framework better captures asymmetric change, identity-driven politics, and the mainstreaming of illiberalism. It foregrounds identity fusion, threat narratives, elite entrepreneurship, and escalation. Concepts are never politically innocent and persisting with “polarization” risks both misdiagnosing and normalizing authoritarian threats.

Tasks

• Book
  • Complete book information form (We have not received the author bio and photo which will accompany the book)
  • Provide alt text descriptions for all figures in their book – started
  • In chapter 14 “??” appears for a Figure citation – can you let us know what figures this refers to?
• Start reworking Interactions article – email is in “articles and Speaking” folder.
• Ping Shimei and Jimmy on Tolulope O. Abiola email
• Library returns and ordering
• Bills

SBIRs

• 9:00 Standup
• 12:30 Tech summit something
• 3:00 – 5:00 start on WG browser plugin – Started! Discovered PySide6

That was a nice trip

Worship me at the office altar: Why narcissistic leaders resist remote work

• Leaders have displayed diverging reactions to remote work, with some supporting it and others resisting it. Surprisingly little research has examined the personality roots of leader opposition to virtual work. Integrating the extended agency model of narcissism with media richness theory, we hypothesize that narcissistic leaders resist remote work because it threatens their motivations for power and status. In Study 1, an archival analysis of 259 Fortune 500 CEOs, unobtrusive measures of narcissism via photo size, signature size, and relative compensation predicted greater resistance to remote work in public statements early in the COVID-19 pandemic. This relationship was partially explained by exploratory proxies for narcissistic leaders’ power and status motivations, contingent on their industry not depending on frontline workers. Study 2, a preregistered three-wave survey with 359 leaders, constructively replicated and extended these results. Leader narcissism predicted resistance to remote work, mediated by power and status motivations—even after controlling for trust, the Big Five, and the remaining Dark Triad traits. In Study 3, a preregistered experiment with 546 leaders, manipulating state narcissism evoked resistance to remote work via power but not status motivation. Our findings extend knowledge about remote work and narcissistic leadership.

Tasks

• Book
  • Complete book information form (We have not received the author bio and photo which will accompany the book)
  • Provide alt text descriptions for all figures in their book
  • In chapter 14 “??” appears for a Figure citation – can you let us know what figures this refers to?
• Start reworking Interactions article – email is in “articles and Speaking” folder.
• Ping Shimei and Jimmy on Tolulope O. Abiola email
• Library returns and ordering
• Laundry! Done
• Bills
  • Trip spreadsheet – Done!
• Order replacements for the things that I seem to have lost – done
• Ping Fidelity about SN’s annuity – done
• TE – done

SBIRs

• 4:00 Meeting
• Tech summit slides in the correct format. Found the format
• Set up a daily 2 hour slot for development with Aaron