The rise of the extremes

Political parties across the world are diverging

It has long been argued that the practice of democratic politics renders extremist political parties unviable. There were multiple proposed channels for this widely observed moderating influence associated with seizing power through elections. Perhaps, as the median voter theorem suggests, extremists cannot hope to win without persuading the median voter that they will responsibly implement moderate ideas. Or the nature of representative democracy, in particular, requires compromise in order to push through elements of an agenda. Or perhaps extreme views within the political spectrum serve merely to push the “Overton window” of acceptable ideologies one way or the other, shifting