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Does party system polarization mobilize voters? Polarization is increasingly shaping democratic competition across Europe. While often perceived to be negative, polarization can be an effective remedy against voter disengagement. This paper investigates two distinct, but often conflated mechanisms, which could explain why polarization leads to mobilization. Spatial polarization of parties diversifies electoral options at the ballot, while affective polarization mobilizes based on emotional considerations. This article then shows the link between polarization and turnout across 22 European countries. The results are complemented by a difference-in-differences analysis of German local elections. However, voting results alone do not inform about the mechanism at play. Survey data is used to show that negative affect appears to be the main driver of voter participation. Party polarization thus has ambivalent consequences for democracies: It mobilizes the electorate, but its effect is driven by negative emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diversification of Western European electorates due to immigration raises the question whether politicians discriminate against constituents with an immigrant background. While ethnic distance can explain lower responsiveness to out-group constituents, shared partisanship might mitigate discrimination. We examine this issue through an audit experiment with 1,522 members of parliament in 15 German state legislatures. We find that politicians are 11 percentage points less likely to respond to a constituent's e-mail asking for a personal meeting if the sender has an immigrant background (randomization inference p <.001). Surprisingly, there is no difference in rates of discrimination between leftist and rightist parties. We also find evidence that signaling partisanship can mitigate the immigrant-background effect. Our findings imply that on the dimension of responsiveness, politicians—on the right and the left—might hamper rather than foster the political integration of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]