All over the world, democracies are affected by polarisation. Nevertheless, remarkable differences between countries exist. Scandinavian countries, for example, do much better than France, the UK, or the US. A large-scale comparative study by VUB-researchers Kamil Bernaerts, Benjamin Blanckaert and Didier Caluwaerts attributes some part of that variation between countries to their political institutions. Their message is hopeful: within the right institutional conditions, democracies can successfully curtail polarisation.