Competing Motives in the Partisan Mind: How Loyalty and Responsiveness Shape Party Identification and Democracy

Abstract

Party identification is generally considered the most powerful predictor of voting behavior. Yet, after 50 years of research, scholars continue to disagree over the implications of this well-known finding. Some argue that party identification constitutes a stable affective attachment that voters are motivated to defend, whereas others argue that party identification constitutes a running tally of voters’ objective evaluations. Thus, party identification may serve as a pervasive source of bias that undermines accountability or as an indispensable shortcut that makes it easier for voters to hold government accountable. Competing Motives in the Partisan Mind seeks to advance the literature beyond this impasse by relaxing the motivational assumptions underlying the literature’s two dominant models. The books’ dual motivations model allows partisans to act like loyal fans who are motivated to maintain allegiance to their team and also like good citizens who are motivated to hold parties accountable. The nature of party identification and its implications for democracy hinge on the interplay between these two motivational forces. Results show that when people disagree with their party’s issue positions, they attempt to develop justifications for maintaining their party identity. This allows them to fulfill their motivation to remain loyal without appearing to be bad citizens whose judgment is clouded by partisan bias. Of course, identity justification requires cognitive resources,…