From gridlock to polarization

• In Event: Formal Models of American Politics

Brief Overview

We argue that gridlock may cause elite polarization by inducing moderate voters to discount extremism and, in turn, support extreme candidates. We develop a formal model and, using a large-scale survey experiment, we find support for our predictions.

Authors

• Marc S. Jacob, Stanford University

• Barton E. Lee, ETH Zurich

• Gabriele Gratton, University of New South Wales