Cue-Taking on Foreign Policy: Ideological Orientation and Party Identification

• In Event: Elite Cues, Public Opinion, and Foreign Policy

Abstract

Numerous studies have demonstrated that cues from co-partisan political elites are influential for public opinion about domestic policy issues. However, there is relatively little understanding of how the identity of cue-givers shapes American public opinion in the realm of foreign policy. How do voters respond to political elites’ cues on foreign policy issues? Foreign policy is a useful area to study the effects of political cues because political party is not always a reliable predictor of politicians’ foreign policy positions. For example, Democrats and Republicans have not developed distinct party reputations regarding free trade or nuclear arms control. The literature on public opinion and foreign policy has identified that individuals hold coherent beliefs about international engagement, trust for other nations, the utility of military force, and American superiority. These ideological beliefs about international affairs are often a useful guide to a politician’s specific policy positions, even when political party is not. This study explores how voters utilize information about the party affiliation and foreign policy ideological orientation of cue-givers when evaluating messages from political elites. When a politician’s party does not necessarily reveal their foreign policy ideology, how do co-partisans respond to cues on foreign policy issues? When voters share a politician’s party but not ideology (or vice versa), how effective are the politician’s cues? By fielding a survey experiment on a national sample of 12,600 American adults across three experiments—3,600 for the International Trust experiment, 4,000 for the Isolationism experiment, and 5,000 for the Militant Assertiveness experiment—this study investigates how the interaction of partisan identity and ideological orientation affects the nature of public opinion formation on foreign issues.

Authors

• Sowon Park, University of Virginia

• Todd S. Sechser, University of Virginia

• Sunggun Park, George Washington University