Political choice in a polarized America : how elite polarization shapes mass behavior /
"What motivates citizens to support one party over the other? Do they carefully weigh all the relevant issues and assess which party or candidate best matches their own positions? Or do people look at politics as something more akin to a team sport-the specifics do not matter if you know what s...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York, NY, United States of America :
Oxford University Press,
[2022]
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "What motivates citizens to support one party over the other? Do they carefully weigh all the relevant issues and assess which party or candidate best matches their own positions? Or do people look at politics as something more akin to a team sport-the specifics do not matter if you know what side your team is on? Understanding how and why Americans vote the way they do is central to understanding the political process. What I claim in Political Choice in a Polarized America is that individuals have core beliefs about what the government should or should not do and these attitudes explain a great deal about what party a person identifies with and votes for. Moreover, I demonstrate these attitudes' explanatory power has increased in recent decades. My thesis rests on the idea that voters generally try to support the party or candidate that best matches their orientations. However, voters' ability to successfully do so varies as a function of the signals sent by elites. Voters have an easier time connecting their own orientations with the party offerings when the parties are polarized. As a result, voters' policy attitudes explain a lot more about their partisan preferences than they did in previous eras. When the parties are polarized, people notice, even if they do not place close attention to politics. The result is an electorate divided by partisanship, policy, and ideology"-- |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (x, 239 pages ) : illustrations. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780197630723 0197630723 9780197630730 0197630731 9780197630716 0197630715 |