The DOI matches its Crossref record; 84 of the 88 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Identity, Beliefs, and Political Conflict
Open accessAbstract
We present a theory of identity politics that builds on two ideas. First, when policy conflict renders a certain social divide—economic or cultural—salient, a voter identifies with her economic or cultural group. Second, the voter slants her beliefs toward the stereotype of the group she identifies with. We obtain three implications. First, voters’ beliefs are polarized along the distinctive features of salient groups. Second, if the salience of cultural policies increases, cultural conflict rises, redistributive conflict falls, and polarization becomes more correlated across issues. Third, economic shocks hurting conservative voters may trigger a switch to cultural identity, causing these voters to demand less redistribution. We discuss U.S. survey evidence in light of these implications.
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“One possible explanation is the rise of identity politics, where: “[s]ince 2010, the political systems of the United States and other advanced democracies have undergone a momentous change… conflict over cultural issues such as immigration, race, and abortion has strengthened” (Bonomi et al., 2021(Bonomi et al., , p. 2371)).”
From Measuring affective polarization: Matching concepts to measures (2026) · cites this paper as Bonomi et al., 2021
Citations
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Self-citationCultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism
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Bangum, C. T., Geys, B., & Sørensen, R. J. (2026) · Economica · doi:10.1111/ecca.70058
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Hédoin, C. (2026) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-443-40622-5.00050-5
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Kudo, Y. (2026) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2026.107670
Place, education, and voting along the transnational cleavage in Europe
Huijsmans, T., Kuhn, T., & Lancee, B. (2026) · European Journal of Political Research · doi:10.1017/s1475676526101510
Kuehnhanss, C. R., & Scharfbillig, M. (2026) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.70168
Ideology or Identity? CEO Political Party Affiliation and Conformity in Competitive Strategy
Nair, K., & Lee, E. Y. (2026) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.5465/amj.2024.0596
Chingonas in Charge: A Phenomenological Study of Latina Educational Leaders in Colorado
Lerma-Banuelos, P. (2025) · Digital Commons - DU (University of Denver) · doi:10.56902/etdcrp.2025.140
Economic Identities and The Historical Roots of Climate Change AttitudesPreprint
Dewitte, E. (2026) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.7217838
Challenging the Thrift Paradigm: When Decreasing Income Trajectory Drives Expensive Non-Conformity
He, Z., Li, M., Lien, J. W., & Lu, Y. (2026) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs16091648
Measuring issue-level polarization in congressional speech using community detection-algorithms
Erz, H. (2026) · Network Science · doi:10.1017/nws.2026.10049
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Darendeli, I. S., & Hill, T. (2026) · Journal of International Business Studies · doi:10.1057/s41267-026-00923-1
Metadata
- Authors
- Bonomi, G., Gennaioli, N., & Tabellini, G.
- Affiliations
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Bocconi University (IT)
- Venue
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2021-09-10
- Volume
- 136
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 2371-2411
- ISSN
- 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-4650
- OpenAlex
- W3200887357
- Cited by
- 213
- References
- 88
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 57 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 15
- FWCI
- 96.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Archivio istituzionale della Ricerca - Bocconi (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Social Policy and Reform Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- identity politics, political polarization, group identification, belief polarization, cultural conflict, economic shocks, conservative voters, social identity, policy conflict
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