The West is in an age of “hyperpolitics” in which polarization has surged but institutions are incapable of delivering change, a leading researcher argued.

Unlike in prior periods of political tension, the Oxford academic Anton Jäger said, people today are able to easily get involved in debates thanks to social media, but do not do so via a party, union, or other group: They “politicize without institutionalizing,” Jäger noted on the European Council on Foreign Relations podcast.

That has resulted in a “mania” in contemporary politics in which voters’ demands are ever-easier to express, but because of a lack of durable support or attention, parties and leaders cannot enact long-term change, resulting in a “perfect recipe for frustration.”