Changing discourse: Combating political polarisation using a comparative decision framework

Abstract

This paper builds on approaches from political science and cause prioritisation to create a framework that can effectively compare between solutions to different political institutions, arguing that these solutions have tended to be undervalued in cause prioritisation. It will show that frameworks from cause prioritisation can effectively be adapted to the political context by changing measurements and adding categories that can be excluded in non-political contexts. Then, this framework will be applied to compare solutions to political polarisation, or the increase of ideological and emotional cleavages around political issues in both the public and the political elite. This paper concludes that the most effective solution to political polarisation depends on context, but that increasing intergroup contact through citizens’ assemblies appears to be the most generally promising solution reviewed.