Political Depolarization in German Public Opinion, 1980-2010

Abstract

Little is known about political polarization in German public opinion. We offer an issue-based perspective and explore trends of opinion polarization in Germany. Public opinion polarization is conceptualized and measured as alignment of attitudes. Data from the German General Social Survey (1980 to 2010) comprise attitudes towards manifold issues which are classified into several dimensions. We estimate multilevel models which reveal general and issue- as well as dimension specific levels and trends in attitude alignment for both the whole German population and subgroups. We find that public opinion polarization has decreased over the last three decades in Germany. In particular, the higher educated and more politically interested people became less polarized over time. However, polarization seems to have increased in attitudes regarding gender issues. Our findings provide interesting contrasts to existing research on the American public.