Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T14:54:07.531Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From on High: The Effect of Elite Polarization on Mass Attitudes and Behaviors, 1972–2012

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2015

Joshua N. Zingher  and
Michael E. Flynn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Though there is widespread scholarly consensus that American political elites have become increasingly ideologically polarized, there remains debate about how the mass electorate has responded to the increase in polarization at the elite level. This article shows that as party elites have become more polarized, individuals have become better able to identify the party that best matches their own ideological positions, thereby contributing to polarization at the mass level. Using forty years of ANES and DW-NOMINATE data to test this argument, it was found that the relationship between a voter’s position in policy space and their political behavior is indeed conditional upon polarization at the elite level. This finding demonstrates how changes in elite polarization translate to behavioral changes on the mass level.

Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 23 - 45
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Old Dominion University, Department of Political Science and Geography (email: [email protected]); Department of Political Science, Kansas State University (email: [email protected]). The authors would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. In addition, the authors thank Michael D. McDonald and Ben Farrer for their helpful feedback during the early stages of the project. Data replication sets are available at https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/BJPolS. Online appendices are available at http://dx.doi.org/doi: 10.1017/S0007123415000514.

References

List of References

Abramowitz, Alan. 2010. The Disappearing Center. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Abramowitz, Alan, and Saunders, Kyle. 2006. Exploring the Bases of Partisanship in the American Electorate: Social Identity vs. Ideology. Political Research Quarterly 59:175–187.Google Scholar
Abramowitz, Alan, and Saunders, Kyle. 2008. Is Polarization Really a Myth? Journal of Politics 70:542–555.Google Scholar
Ansolabehere, Stephen, Rodden, Jonathan, and Snyder, James M. Jr. 2008. The Strength of Issues: Using Multiple Measures to Gauge Preference Stability, Ideological Constraint and Issue Voting. American Political Science Review 102:215–232.Google Scholar
Berry, William D., Golder, Matt, and Milton, Daniel. 2012. Improving Tests of Theories Positing Interaction. Journal of Politics 74:653–671.Google Scholar
Brewer, Mark. 2005. The Rise of Partisanship and the Expansion of Partisan Conflict within the American Electorate. Political Research Quarterly 58:219–229.Google Scholar
Campbell, James. 2005. Why Bush Won the Presidential Election of 2004: Incumbency, Ideology, Terrorism, and Turnout. Political Science Quarterly 120:219–241.Google Scholar
Carmines, Edward G., and Stimson, James. 1989. Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics. New York: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Carroll, Royce, Lewis, Jeffrey, Lo, James, McCarty, Nolan, Poole, Keith, and Rosenthal, Howard. 2013. Common Space DW-NOMINATE Scores with Bootstrapped Standard Errors (Joint House and Senate Scaling), 6 February. Available from: http://voteview.com/dwnomjoint.asp.Google Scholar
Carsey, Thomas, and Layman, Geoffrey. 2006. Changing Sides or Changing Minds? Party Identification and Policy Preferences in the American Electorate. American Journal of Political Science 50:464–477.Google Scholar
Converse, Phillip. 1964. Belief Systems in Mass Publics. Pp. 206–261 in David Apter, ed., Ideology and Discontent. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary, and McCubbins, Matthew D.. 2005. Setting the Agenda. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Ellis, Christopher, and Stimson, James. 2012. Ideology in America. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, Stanley, and Johnston, Christopher. 2014. Understanding the Determinants of Political Ideology: Implications of Structural Complexity. Political Psychology 35:337–358.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris, and Abrams, Samuel J.. 2008. Political Polarization in the American Public, Pp. 563–588 in Annual Review of Political Science 11.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris, Abrams, Samuel J., and Pope, Jeremy. 2011. Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America, 3rd edn., New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris, and Levendusky, Matthew. 2006. Disconnected: The Political Class Versus the People – Rejoinder. Pp. 49–71 in Pietro S. Nivola and David W. Brady, eds, Red and Blue Nation? Volume 1 – Characteristics and Causes of America’s Polarized Politics . Washington, D.C: Hoover Institution Press.Google Scholar
Green, Donald, Palmquist, Bradley, and Schickler, Eric. 2002. Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Goren, Paul. 2013. On Voter Competence. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gorsuch, Richard L. 1974. Factor Analysis. Philadelphia, Penn: W. B. Saunders Company.Google Scholar
Grofman, Bernard. 1991. Multivariate Methods and the Analysis of Racially Polarized Voting: Pitfalls in the Use of Social Science by the Courts. Social Science Quarterly 72:826–833.Google Scholar
Hetherington, Mark. 2001. Resurgent Mass Partisanship. American Political Science Review 95:619–631.Google Scholar
Iyengar, Shanto, Sood, Gaurav, and Lelkes, Yphtach. 2012. Affect, Not Ideology: A Social Identity Perspective on Polarization. Public Opinion Quarterly 76:405–431.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary. 2000. Partisan Polarization in National Politics: The Electoral Connection. Pp. 9–30 in Jon Bond and Richard Fleisher, eds, Polarized Politics Congress and the President in a Partisan Era. Washington, D.C: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey, and Carsey, Thomas. 2002. Party Polarization and ‘Conflict Extension’ in the American Electora. American Journal of Political Science 46:786–802.Google Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey, Carsey, Thomas, Green, James C., Herrera, Richard, and Cooperman, Rosalyn. 2010. Activists and Conflict Extension in American Party Politics. American Political Science Review 104:324–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levendusky, Matthew. 2009. The Partisan Sort. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Levendusky, Matthew. 2010. Clearer Cues, More Consistent Voters: A Benefit of Elite Polarization. Political Behavior 32:111–131.Google Scholar
Levendusky, Matthew, and Pope, Jeremy. 2011. Red States vs. Blue States: Going Beyond the Mean. Public Opinion Quarterly. 75:227–248.Google Scholar
Mann, Thomas E. 2007. Polarizing the House of Representatives: How Much Does Gerrymandering Matter?. Pp. 263–283 in Pietro S. Nivola and David W. Brady, eds, Red and Blue Nation? Volume 1 – Characteristics and Causes of America’s Polarized Politics . Washington, D.C: Hoover Institution Press.Google Scholar
Mason, Lilliana. 2013. The Rise of Uncivil Agreement: Issue Versus Behavioral Polarization in the American Electorate. American Behavioral Scientist 57:140–159.Google Scholar
Mason, Lilliana. 2015. I Disrespectfully Agree: The Differential Effects of Partisan Sorting on Behavioral and Issue Polarization. American Journal of Political Science 59:128–145.Google Scholar
McCarty, Nolan, Poole, Keith, and Rosenthal, Howard. 2006. Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Gary, and Schofield, Norman. 2008. The Transformation of the Republican and Democratic Party Coalitions in the U.S. Perspectives on Politics 6:433–450.Google Scholar
Nicholson, Stephen. 2012. Polarizing Cues. American Journal of Political Science 56:52–66.Google Scholar
Poole, Keith, and Rosenthal, Howard. 1997. Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rohde, David. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Post-Reform House. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Saunders, Kyle L., and Abramowitz, Alan. 2004. Ideological Realignment and Active Partisans in the American Electorate. American Politics Research 32:285–309.Google Scholar
Schofield, Norman, Claassen, Christopher, Gallego, Maria, and Ozdemir, Ugur. 2011. Empirical and Formal Models of the United States Presidential Elections in 2000 and 2004. Pp. 259–302 in Norman Schofield and Gonzalo Gaballero, eds, Political Economy of Institutions, Democracy and Voting. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Schofield, Norman, Miller, Gary, and Martin, Andrew. 2003. Critical Elections and Political Realignments in the USA: 1860–2000. Political Studies 51:217–240.Google Scholar
Stonecash, Jeffrey, Brewer, Mark, and Mariani, Mack D.. 2003. Diverging Parties: Social Change, Realignment, and Party Polarization. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Treier, Shawn, and Hillygus, Sunshine. 2009. The Nature of Political Ideology in the Contemporary Electorate. Public Opinion Quarterly 73:679–703.Google Scholar
Zaller, Jonathan. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Zingher and Flynn supplementary material S1

Appendix

Download Zingher and Flynn supplementary material S1(PDF)
PDF 1.1 MB