‘The Enemy Is Within’: Elite Affective Polarization in American Politics

• In Event: Polarization and Partisanship in Congress

Abstract

A growing body of research documents a recent rise in partisan affective polarization among members of the American public. Affective polarization, defined as love of one’s own party and hatred of the opposing party, has been shown to have important behavioral implications for the mass public. Despite the prevalence and importance of affective polarization for mass political behavior, little work has examined affective polarization among American politicians. In this paper, I present results from two original surveys, one of local elected officials and one of state legislative candidates in the 2022 elections. Using a series of vignette and conjoint survey experiments, I show how partisan identity and affective polarization shape the beliefs and behaviors of politicians. Specifically, I examine how partisanship and affect influence policy views, representational decisions, and policymaking. Demonstrating the external validity of my findings, I connect survey responses from state legislative candidates to public data about politicians’ behavior, including social media posts and bill sponsorships, to show how affective polarization predicts real-world behavior. Findings from my original experiments offer a timely contribution to the study of legislative politics and affective polarization—particularly as threats of violence, including those by politicians, increase in prevalence.

Author

• Sam Frederick, Columbia University