PhronesisWe apply the Displacement Framework to political polarization, formalizing democratic deliberation as requiring a shared epistemic ground state S0_political defined across four dimensions: epistemic (shared facts), affective (mutual recognition), behavioral (willingness to negotiate), and institutional (functional norms). Polarization is modeled as displacement from this S0 toward partisan wrong attractors — deeply stable configurations resistant to return.
Eight formal propositions are derived covering echo chambers as artificial basin deepening (algorithmic engagement optimization adds displacement independent of real social conflict), radicalization as staged basin migration with threshold invisibility, the shared facts problem as epistemic S0 destruction, the backfire effect as within-attractor stability, and return path cost hierarchy.
Historical cases (Weimar Germany, US Civil War, contemporary US polarization) are analyzed as displacement-geometric progressions. Institutional design solutions are formalized as displacement-cost reduction strategies.