Abstract

Political polarization and populism represent two extremely prolific fields of research. These concepts have a lot in common, yet these research areas remain essentially on two parallel tracks. This essay aims to link the studies on political polarization and those on populism, underlining how the literature on the two concepts could be integrated. Through a conceptual review, in this essay, I argue that populism can be considered a sub-category of polarization. Populism always contributes to polarization, above all through its communication based on the division «We pure people vs Them corrupted elite», communication which to a great extent can embody its ideology and strategy as well. Furthermore, through an analysis of the main approaches to political polarization, I argue that political communication can be considered one of the main triggers of polarization