Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters (The Institution for Social and Policy St)

In this, the first major treatment of party identification in twenty years, three political scientists assert that identification with political parties still powerfully determines how citizens look at politics and cast their ballots. Challenging prevailing views, they build a case for the continuing theoretical and political significance of partisan identities. The authors maintain that individuals form partisan attachments early in adulthood and that these political identities, much like religious identities, tend to persist or change only slowly over time. Scandals, recessions, and landslide elections do not greatly affect party identification; large shifts in party attachments occur only when the social imagery of a party changes, as when African Americans became part of the Democratic Party in the South after the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Drawing on a wealth of data analysis using individual-level and aggregate survey data from the United States and abroad, this study offers a new perspective on party identification that will set the terms of discussion for years to come.

In this, the first major treatment of party identification in twenty years, three political scientists assert that identification with political parties still powerfully determines how citizens look at politics and cast their ballots. Challenging prevailing views, they build a case for the continuing theoretical and political significance of partisan identities.The authors maintain that individuals form partisan attachments early in adulthood and that these political identities, much like religious identities, tend to persist or change only slowly over time. Scandals, recessions, and landslide elections do not greatly affect party identification; large shifts in party attachments occur only when the social imagery of a party changes, as when African Americans became part of the Democratic Party in the South after the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Drawing on a wealth of data analysis using individual-level and aggregate survey data from the United States and abroad, this study offers a new perspective on party identification that will set the terms of discussion for years to come.

A treatment of party identification, in which three political scientists assert that identification with political parties still powerfully determines how citizens look at politics and cast their ballots. Challenging prevailing views, they build a case for the continuing theoretical and political significance of partisan identities. The authors maintain that individuals form partisan attachments early in adulthood and that these political identities, much like religious identities, tend to persist or change only slowly over time. Scandals, recessions, and landslide elections do not greatly affect party identification; large shifts in party attachments occur only when the social imagery of a party changes, as when African Americans became part of the Democratic Party in the South after the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Drawing on a wealth of data analysis using individual-level and aggregate survey data from the United States and from other countries, this study seeks to offer a new perspective on party identification that will set the terms of discussion for years to come Contents 5 Preface 7 Chapter 1. Introduction 13 Chapter 2. Partisan Groups as Objects of Identification 36 Chapter 3. A Closer Look at Partisan Stability 64 Chapter 4. Partisan Stability: Evidence from Aggregate Data 97 Chapter 5. Partisan Stability and Voter Learning 121 Chapter 6. Party Realignment in the American South 152 Chapter 7. Partisan Stability outside the United States 176 Chapter 8. How Partisan Attachments Structure Politics 216 Appendix 243 Notes 247 References 257 Index 267 In this authoritative study, three political scientists assert that identification with political parties still powerfully determines how citizens look at politics and cast their ballots. The book challenges prevailing views, builds a case for the continuing theoretical and political significance of partisan identities, and establishes a new starting point for future discussions of this subject.