Both the topics of government stability and political polarization have a long tradition in political science. This paper's goal was to examine if there is a causal relationship between polarization and government stability in Europe. Prior research has presented arguments for both positive and negative effects of polarization on government stability. Here, the distinction between polarization as divergence and polarization as extremity is used to clarify some of the issues in this research. Government stability is operationalized in terms of the number of days a government is in power. Polarization as divergence is operationalized using Dalton's polarization index, while polarization as extremity is measured by the size of outer-edge parties. A multiple regression analysis is used to determine if there is a correlation between these factors and government stability. The results show that there is a correlation between polarization as divergence and government stability, acting as a stabilizing factor. However, there is also a correlation between polarization as extremity and government destabilization. Therefore, the conclusion of this paper highlights the importance of distinguishing between these two understandings of polarization. Depending on the type of polarization, it can either be a positive or negative factor for government stability. The paper concludes with a discussion on the different causal explanations and how researchers can proceed to gain a deeper understanding of the subject.