The Stigmatization of Political Ideologies

It is often said that history always favours the winners. But how does this theory play out in political conflicts? What becomes of political movements or ideologies when they don't win the debate, election or referendum?

In this year-long British Academy project Vicente Valentim asks the question 'how do political positions become stigmatised?'. He will investigate how political winners' narratives of 'good' and 'bad' can vilify the political 'losers', creating new social norms and opinions that are played out within the wider public.

Vicente will use survey experiments and observational data to test how political stigmatisation occurs after certain 'critical junctures' in politics. His theory will be tested in cases with a history of different salient political conflicts, with different scopes, like that of Spain.