Changing Sides or Changing Minds? Party Identification and Policy Preferences in the American Electorate
Abstract
Scholars have long debated the individual‐level relationship between partisanship and policy preferences. We argue that partisanship and issue attitudes cause changes in each other, but the pattern of influence varies systematically. Issue‐based change in party identification should occur among individuals who are aware of party differences on an issue and find that issue to be salient. Individuals who are aware of party differences, but do not attach importance to the issue, should evidence party‐based issue change. Those lacking awareness of party differences on an issue should show neither effect. We test our account by examining individuals' party identifications and their attitudes on abortion, government spending and provision of services, and government help for African Americans using the 1992‐94‐96 National Election Study panel study, finding strong support for our argument. We discuss the implications of our findings both for the microlevel study of party identification and the macrolevel analysis of partisan change.
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At least a bidimensional ideology distinguishing economic and social preferences is appropriate for domestic politics.
“Many political scientists and political psychologists argue for the use of at least a bidimensional ideology for domestic politics that distinguishes between economic and social preferences (Carsey and Layman, 2006;Carmines et al., 2012;Feldman and Johnston, 2014).”
From Political Ideology and Polarization: A Multi-dimensional Approach (2022) · cites this paper as Carsey and Layman, 2006
Cites
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Zaller, J. R. (1992) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511818691 · Cited by 7,785 · see citing works
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Bartels, L. M. (2002) · Political Behavior · doi:10.1023/a:1021226224601 · Cited by 1,468 · see citing works
Ideological Realignment in the U.S. Electorate
Abramowitz, A. I., & Saunders, K. L. (1998) · The Journal of Politics · doi:10.2307/2647642 · Cited by 681 · see citing works
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Political Polarization in the American Public
Fiorina, M. P., & Abrams, S. J. (2008) · Annual Review of Political Science · doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.053106.153836 · Cited by 1,798 · see citing works
Affective Polarization in Multiparty Systems
Wagner, M. (2021) · Electoral Studies · doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102199 · Cited by 593 · see citing works
How Ideology Fuels Affective Polarization
Rogowski, J. C., & Sutherland, J. L. (2016) · Political Behavior · doi:10.1007/s11109-015-9323-7 · Cited by 503 · see citing works
Activists and Conflict Extension in American Party Politics
LAYMAN, G. C., CARSEY, T. M., GREEN, J. C., HERRERA, R., & COOPERMAN, R. (2010) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s000305541000016x · Cited by 348 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Polarization of Contemporary American Politics
Hare, C., & Poole, K. T. (2014) · Polity · doi:10.1057/pol.2014.10 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Political Ideology and Polarization: A Multi-dimensional Approach
Sinno, B., Oviedo, B., Atwell, K., Alikhani, M., & Li, J. J. (2022) · Proceedings of the 2022 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies · doi:10.18653/v1/2022.naacl-main.17 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“Many political scientists and political psychologists argue for the use of at least a bidimensional ideology for domestic politics that distinguishes between economic and social preferences (Carsey and Layman, 2006; Carmines et al., 2012; Feldman and Johnston, 2014).”
BackgroundThe Political Dynamics of Partisan Polarization
Schmidt, E. R., Carmines, E. G., & Sniderman, P. M. (2025) · doi:10.1017/9781009472760 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
- Authors
- Carsey, T. M., & Layman, G. C.
- Affiliations
- Florida State University (US)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Corresponding author
- Carsey, Thomas M.
- Layman, Geoffrey C.
- Venue
- American Journal of Political Science
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006-03-29
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 464-477
- ISSN
- 0092-5853 (ISSN-L)
- 1540-5907
- OpenAlex
- W2112557327
- Cited by
- 633
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 92 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 38 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 73.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Political Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › American Political and Social Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Politics and Representation
- Keywords
- party identification, policy preferences, partisan change, issue salience, abortion attitudes, government spending, public services, American electorate
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