Public Lecture – Big Ideas for Democracy: Luana Russo

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Political Identity as a Feature of Democracy: Belonging, Rejection, and Absence 

Political identities are often taken for granted as attachments to parties or ideological camps. Yet citizens differ profoundly in how much politics matters to who they are, in whether they define themselves through belonging or rejection, and in whether politics plays any role in their self-concept at all. 

This public lecture draws on original comparative research in Western Europe to rethink political identity as a multidimensional phenomenon structured by importance, direction, and absence. It distinguishes between positive political identities rooted in belonging, negative political identities driven by opposition and moral rejection, and low-salience identities marked by detachment from politics. 

By examining how these forms of political identity relate to emotions, stereotypes, participation, and satisfaction with democracy, the lecture sheds light on why some citizens are mobilized, others polarized, and still others disengaged. 

The talk concludes by reflecting on what the balance between belonging, opposition, and detachment means for the health of contemporary liberal democracies. 

Bio

Luana Russo is Associate Professor in Political Behavior and Quantitative Methods at Maastricht University, where she currently also serves as co-Director of CERiM (Centre for European Research in Maastricht). Luana’s research interests focus on elections, political attitudes and behaviors, political psychology, affective polarization, and negative partisanship. She is dedicated to understanding how individuals form and express their political preferences and form their social identities and affiliations, particularly within the context of contemporary political polarization.