Political Social Distance in Europe

In this study, we build on Emory Bogardus’ classical sociology of distance to develop a relational framework for understanding attitudes related to democratic coexistence. Extending his insight into the political realm, we frame political social distance as the (dis)comfort citizens feel toward supporters of the party they would never vote for, as in-laws, friends, co-workers, or neighbors. Using original survey data from eight European democracies, we show that social trust consistently reduces distance toward political outgroups, while ideological orientation influences this disposition asymmetrically: respondents on the left exhibit higher political social distance than those on the right. Moreover, citizens who attach strong importance to democracy display greater distance toward opponents, a paradox we term democratic exclusivism, grounded in a moral rather than procedural conception of democracy. These findings have important implications for democratic quality, as they reveal both the social foundations that may enable peaceful democratic coexistence and the attitudinal barriers that may gradually weaken it.