Bipolarism

Political scientists and international observers debated whether the international system had become unipolar (with the United States as the sole superpower) or multipolar (with competing economic and military powers represented by the United States, China, Europe, and perhaps other countries and regions, depending on the political scientist consulted) in the aftermath of bipolarism.

East–West bipolarism is also associated with the “zero-sum” game (“my gain your loss”) of political-military rebalancing through military interventions or subversions in any Third World area where the adversary makes fresh inroads.

To give credibility to its separation from the PD, the ApI had to declare bipolarism a failure and once again stress the usefulness, in the present situation in Italy, of a centrist, reforming party—one whose strength relies on concrete proposals and not on ideological radicalism.

One of the most prominent features of Cypriot party politics is the one which is also systemic at the party system level: bipolarism – the deep social, ideological and political division between right and left.

Born after the end of the First Republic (1948–92), bipolarism had gone through different phases, but never faded away.