ABSTRACT
The study of polarization has become very important because of its role in the analysis of income distribution evolution, social conflict and economic growth. Loosely speaking, polarization deals with appearance (or disappearance) of subgroups, defined in an unambiguous way, in a distribution of an attribute. We assume here that income is the attribute under consideration. Two characteristics that are regarded as being intrinsic to the concept of polarization are ‘identification’ and ‘alienation’. As the incomes of the individuals belonging to a subgroup become closer, their feeling of identification increases. In contrast, as the subgroups become more and more distant in terms of higher inequality between subgroups, alienation increases. It is clear that a society with a high degree of polarization, as characterized by the existence of conflicting subgroups, may give rise to social instability and conflicts.
