Voters and Parties: Explorations of Polarization & Competence using CSES

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Political parties are considered the lifeblood for democracy and consequently citizen assessments of their positions, their competence, and how they view opposition parties matter when assessing the health of a democracy and in understanding political behavior. One observation dominant in the US presently is that America is divided with parties, and some say citizens, notably split on policy and also increasing disliking opposition parties and their followers (the latter phenomenon classified as affective polarization). Yet the underlying motivations for these developments and their implications for democracy remain the subject of intense debate. To address these issues from a comparative perspective, this panel brings together prominent scholars in the field of electoral and party behavior to explore voter feelings towards parties and their impact on political behavior. All four studies take a quantitative, multivariate, and cross-national approach. They are united by their use of data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), a project celebrating its 25th anniversary, and which allows scholars to explore electoral behavior comparatively from a micro and a macro perspective over-time. The first three papers explore the antecedents and impact of polarization, with comparative studies of affective polarization the focus of papers 1-3. The fourth paper puts the focus on voters’ assessments of parties ability to manage issues effectively, developing a novel cross-national measure of party system incompetence.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 36: Elections and Voting Behavior

Individual Presentations

• Negative Partisanship: Polarization or Disaffection? - Eva Anduiza, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Enrique Hernández, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Guillem Rico, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

• Enemy Mine: Affective Polarization and Satisfaction with Democracy - Hannah Ridge

• Affective Polarization in Multiparty Systems - Markus Wagner, University of Vienna

• Unfit to Serve: Perceptions of Party System Incompetence & its Undermining Effect - Robert Rohrschneider, University of Kansas; Rudiger Schmitt-Beck, University of Mannheim

Chair

• Markus Wagner University of Vienna

Discussant

• Elizabeth J. Zechmeister Vanderbilt University