Polarization of Political Attitudes in Europe

Weekly Entrie TABLE OF CONTENT Key issue1 Relevance of the issue 1 Current example 1 Critical analysis2 Discussion 2 REFERENCES 3 Key issue Regional polarization Relevance of the issue Regional polarization is defined as the divergence of political attitudes to ideological extremes. The spatial and regional polarization and disparities developed in EU regions have caused serious imbalance in terms of development and employment in non-metropolitan and metropolitan areas (Beugelsdijk, Klasing and Milionis, 2017). With the rapidly increasing

Weekly Entrie

TABLE OF CONTENT
Key issue..........................................................................................................................................1
Relevance of the issue .....................................................................................................................1
Current example ..............................................................................................................................1
Critical analysis ...............................................................................................................................2
Discussion .......................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................3

Key issue
Regional polarization
Relevance of the issue
Regional polarization is defined as the divergence of political attitudes to ideological
extremes. The polarization has been rapidly increasing in metropolitan regions of Europe. The
spatial and regional polarization and disparities developed in EU regions have caused serious
imbalance in terms of development and employment in non-metropolitan and metropolitan areas
(Beugelsdijk, Klasing and Milionis, 2017). The issue can be considered as highly relevant as it
leads to huge gap in per capita income, employment opportunities and other aspects of economic
development.
Current example
Various politicians and economists have demanded to review the political strategies on
the basis of regional polarization. With the rapidly increasing disparities in economic
development and social balance welfare and development strategies pay more emphasis on
spatial attributes (Regional Polarization and Unequal Development in CEE: Challenges for
Innovative Place-based Policies. 2019). With the regional or spatial polarization huge
differences in GDP began to emerge and it can have crucial impact on the overall GDP and
economic development.
1

Critical analysis
Though European regional policy has been in action but still there is rise in regional
disparities. There has been great advancement in the economic growth theory and this has also
created territorial imbalance in EU regions. In the process of economic development it is very
essential and recommended that greater proportion of the economic activities must be
decentralized to specific number of regions only (Lang, 2018). The same has been encountered
in terms of blue banana region. However, the same situations cannot be sustained for long term
as it can have adverse consequences due to excessive agglomeration. Unemployment and labour
markets are analysed and evaluated at national level. However, with increasing trends and
significance in the regional unemployment there has been an adverse impact on national
economy as well. The regional polarization also limit the employment and growth opportunities
in the non-metropolitan areas (Görmar and et.al., 2019). Thus, the factors such as per capital
income, labour cost and availability, technology varies significantly between these regions.
Discussion
One of the theme which has been emerged from the analysis of issue is the association
between regional polarization and economic development. Due to regional polarization the
people living in urban agglomerations and metropolitan regions are having higher income and
living standard. A better political focus is also provided to these regions (McCann, 2016).
However, the trend can be considered as harmful for the old industrial regions. Another theme
which can be included in the discussion is promoting spatial justice as method to overcome the
polarization. The regions in blue banana seems to enjoy easier availability and processing of
resources, capital and development plans. The political polarization seems to play a significant
role in this aspect. Along with the GDP the attributes such as inflationary pressure can also be
lowered by minimizing regional unemployment disparities (Beugelsdijk, Klasing and Milionis,
2017). Thus, political and social attempts must be adopted so that regional polarization can be
managed and a balanced and uniform economic growth can be accomplished.
2

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beugelsdijk, S., Klasing, M.J. and Milionis, P., 2017. Growing social value polarisation harms
economic development. LSE Business Review.
Görmar, F. and et.al., 2019. Re-thinking regional and local policies in times of polarisation: An
introduction. In Regional and Local Development in Times of Polarisation (pp. 1-25).
Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
Lang, T., 2018. Regional and Local Development in Times of Polarisation. Springer.
McCann, P., 2016. The UK regional-national economic problem: Geography, globalisation and
governance. Routledge.
Online
Regional Polarization and Unequal Development in CEE: Challenges for Innovative Place-
based Policies. 2019. [Online]. Accessed through
<https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/newsroom/events/2017/09/regional-polarisation-
and-unequal-development-in-cee-challenges-for-innovative-place-based-policies>
3

4

5

6

7