Policy polarization among party elites and the significance of political awareness in the mass public

Political Research Quarterly

Volumn 62, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 538-551

  Claassen, Ryan L ^a   Highton, Benjamin ^b  

^a KENT STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

Issues; Party identification; Polarization; Political awareness

Indexed keywords

EID: 70249117158     PISSN: 10659129     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1065912908322415     Document Type: Article

References (56)

1. Abramowitz, Alan, and Kyle Saunders. 2005. Why can't we all just get along? The reality of a polarized America. The Forum 3 (2): 1-22.
2. Adams, Greg D. 1997. Abortion: Evidence of issue evolution. American Journal of Political Science 41:18-37.
3. Althaus, Scott L. 1998. Information effects in collective preferences. American Political Science Review 92:545-58.
4. Althaus, Scott L. 2003. Collective preferences in democratic politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
5. Bartels, Larry M. 1996. Uninformed votes: Information effects in presidential elections. American Journal of Political Science 40:194-230.
6. Bartels, Larry M. 2006. What's the matter with what's the matter with Kansas? Quarterly Journal of Political Science 1:201-26.
7. Bennett, Stephen Earl, and Linda L. M. Bennett. 1993. Out of sight, out of mind: Americans' knowledge of party control of the House of Representatives, 1960-1984. Political Research Quarterly 46 (March): 67-80.
8. Berinsky, Adam J. 2005. The perverse consequences of electoral reform in the United States. American Politics Research 33 (July): 471-91.
9. Brewer, Mark D. 2005. The rise of partisanship and the expansion of partisan conflict within the American electorate. Political Research Quarterly 58:219-30.
10. Brewer, Mark D., and Jeffrey M. Stonecash. 2007. Split: Class and cultural divides in American politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
11. Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes. 1960. The American voter. New York: John Wiley.
12. Carmines, Edward G., and James A. Stimson. 1989. Issue evolution: Race and the transformation of American politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
13. Carmines, Edward G., and James Woods. 2002. The role of party activists in the evolution of the abortion issue. Political Behavior 24:361-77.
14. Carsey, Thomas M., and Geoffrey C. Layman. 2006. Changing sides or changing minds? Party identification and policy preferences in the American electorate. American Journal of Political Science 50 (April): 464-77.
15. Claassen, Ryan L., and Benjamin Highton. 2006. Does policy debate reduce information effects in public opinion? Analyzing the evolution of public opinion on health care. Journal of Politics 68 (2): 410-20.
16. Converse, Philip. 1964. The nature of belief systems in mass public. In Ideology and discontent, ed. David E. Apter, 206-61. New York: Free Press.
17. Converse, Philip. 1990. Popular representation and the distribution of information. In Information and democratic processes, ed. J. Ferejohn and J. Kuklinsky, 369-87. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
18. Delli Carpini, Michael X., and Scott Keeter. 1996. What Americans know about politics and why it matters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
19. DiMaggio, Paul, John Evans, and Bethan Bryson. 1996. Have Americans' social attitudes become more polarized? American Journal of Sociology 102 (3): 690-755.
20. Erikson, Robert S., Michael B. MacKuen, and James A. Stimson. 2002. The macro polity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
21. Fiorina, Morris P. 2005. Culture war? The myth of a polarized America. New York: Pearson.
22. Gilens, Martin. 2001. Political ignorance and collective policy preferences. American Political Science Review 95:379-98.
23. Groseclose, Tim, Seven D. Levitt, and James M. Snyder. 1999. Comparing interest groups scores across time and chambers: Adjusted ADA scores for the U.S. Congress. American Political Science Review 93:33-50.
24. Hetherington, Marc J. 2001. Resurgent mass partisanship: The role of elite polarization. American Political Science Review 95 (3): 619-31.
25. Jacobson, Gary C. 2000. Party polarization in national politics: The electoral connection. In Polarized politics: Congress and the president in a partisan era, ed. John R. Bond and Richard Fleisher, 9-30. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
26. Jerit, Jennifer, Jason Barabas, and Toby Bolsen. 2006. Citizens, knowledge, and the information environment. American Journal of Political Science 50:266-82.
27. Karol, David. 2007. Coalition management: Explaining party position change in American politics. Typescript, University of California, Berkeley.
28. Lau, Richard R., David J. Andersen, and David P. Redlawsk. 2008. An exploration of correct voting in recent U.S. presidential elections. American Journal of Political Science 52 (April): 395-411.
29. Lau, Richard R., and David P. Redlawsk. 1997. Voting correctly. American Political Science Review 91:585-99.
30. Layman, Geoffrey C., and Thomas Carsey. 2002a. Party polarization and "conflict extension" in the American electorate. American Journal of Political Science 46 (October): 786-802.
31. Layman, Geoffrey C., and Thomas Carsey. 2002b. Party polarization and party structuring of policy attitudes: A comparison of three NES panel studies. Political Behavior 24 (September): 199-236.
32. Lodge, Milton, Marco R. Steenbergen, and Shawn Brau. 1995. The responsive voter: Campaign information and the dynamics of candidate evaluation. American Political Science Review 89 (June): 309-26.
33. Lupia, Arthur. 1994. Shortcuts versus encyclopedias: Information and voting behavior in California insurance reform elections. American Political Science Review 88:63-76.
34. Lupia, Arthur, and Matthew D. McCubbins. 1998. The democratic dilemma: Can citizens learn what they need to know? Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
35. Lupia, Arthur, Matthew D. McCubbins, and Samuel L. Popkin. 2000. Beyond rationality: Reason and the study of politics. In Elements of reason: Cognition, choice, and the bounds of rationality, ed. Arthur Lupia, Mathew D. McCubbins, and Samuel L. Popkin, 1-22. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
36. Luskin, Robert C. 1987. Measuring political sophistication. American Journal of Political Science 31:856-99.
37. McCarty, Nolan M., Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal. 1997. Income redistribution and the realignment of American politics. Washington, DC: AEI Press.
38. McCarty, Nolan M., Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal. 2006. Polarized America: The dance of ideology and unequal riches. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
39. Nicholson, Stephen P. 2003. The political environment and ballot proposition awareness. American Journal of Political Science 47:403-10.
40. Nicholson, Stephen P., and Gary M. Segura. 1999. Midterm elections and divided government: An information-driven theory of electoral volatility. Political Research Quarterly 52 (September): 609-29.
41. Nie, Norman H., with Kristi Andersen. 1974. Mass belief systems revisited: Political change and attitude structure. Journal of Politics 36:541-91.
42. Nie, Norman H., Sidney Verba, and John R. Petrocik. 1976. The changing American voter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
43. Page, Benjamin I., and Robert Y. Shapiro. 1992. The rational public: Fifty years of trends in Americans' policy preferences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
44. Poole, Keith T., and Howard Rosenthal. 1997. Congress: A political-economic history of roll call voting. New York: Oxford University Press.
45. Popkin, Samuel L. 1991. The reasoning voter: Communication and persuasion in presidential campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
46. Price, Vincent, and John Zaller. 1993. Who gets the news? Alternative measures of news reception and their implications for research. Public Opinion Quarterly 57:133-64.
47. Prior, Markus. 2007. Post-broadcast democracy: How media choice increases inequality in political involvement and polarizes elections. New York: Cambridge University Press.
48. Prior, Markus, and Arthur Lupia. 2008. Money, time, and political knowledge: Distinguishing quick recall and political learning skills. American Journal of Political Science 52:169-83.
49. Rosenstone, Steven J., and John Mark Hansen. 1993. Mobilization, participation, and democracy in America. New York: Macmillan.
50. Smith, Eric R. A. N. 1989. The unchanging American voter. Berkeley: University of California Press.
51. Sniderman, Paul M. 2000. Taking sides: A fixed choice theory of political reasoning. In Elements of reason: Cognition, choice, and the bounds of rationality, ed. Arthur Lupia, Mathew D. McCubbins, and Samuel L. Popkin, 67-84. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
52. Sniderman, Paul M., Richard Brody, and Philip Tetlock, eds. 1991. Reasoning and choice: Explorations in political psychology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
53. Stimson, James A. 2004. Tides of consent: How public opinion shapes American politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
54. Sullivan, John L., James E. Piereson, and George E. Marcus. 1978. Ideological constraint in the mass public: A methodological critique and some new findings. American Journal of Political Science 22:233-49.
55. Wolfinger, Raymond E., and Steven J. Rosenstone. 1980. Who votes? New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
56. Zaller, John R. 1992. The nature and origins of mass opinion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.