In comparing publics’ policy preferences between established and new democracies, Dalton (2006) observed a higher proportion of citizens who express radical views in the latter set of countries. This is likely due to sharp differences with regard to the legitimacy of the new regime or constitutional distribution of power when countries embark on transition from authoritarian rule (Moreno 1999). The literature on the attitudinal aspect of democratic consolidation suggest that ideological polarization in new democracies would be reduced as time passes, since questions of institutional design have already been settled, and also due to citizens’ growing acceptance of democracy as the “only game in town”. The present paper investigates whether this proposition is applicable to “Third Wave” new democracies in Eastern Europe and East Asia by examining longitudinal public opinion data. In addition to analysing empirical results, the paper also discusses the role of factors that may mediate the relationship between the length of democratic rule and ideological polarization, such as the presence of ascriptive sociological cleavages and electoral rules.
