The Ambivalent Partisan: How Critical Loyalty Promotes Democracy (Series in Political Psychology)

From The Publisher. Over The Past Half Century, Two Overarching Questions Have Dominated The Study Of Mass Political Behavior: How Do Ordinary Citizens Form Their Political Judgments, And How Good Are Those Judgments From A Normative Perspective? The Authors Of The Ambivalent Partisan Offer A Novel Approach To These Questions, One In Which Political Reasoning Is Viewed As Arising From Trade-offs Among Three Generally Conflicting Psychological Goals: Making Decisions Easily, Getting Them Right, And Maintaining Cognitive Consistency. Taking Aim At Decades Of Received Wisdom, The Central Claim Of This Book Is That High-quality Political Judgment Hinges Less On Citizens' Cognitive Ability Than On Their Willingness To Temporarily Suspend Partisan Habits And Follow The Evidence Wherever It Leads. This Occurs Most Readily When Citizens Experience A Disjuncture Between Their Stable Political Identities And Their Contemporary Evaluations Of Party Performance, A State The Authors Refer To As Partisan Ambivalence. Drawing On Both Experimental And Survey Methods -- As Well As Five Decades Of American Political History -- The Authors Demonstrate That Compared To Other Citizens, Ambivalent Partisans Perceive The Political World Accurately, Form Their Policy Preferences In A Principled Manner, And Communicate Those Preferences By Making Issues An Important Component Of Their Electoral Decisions. The Book's Most Important Conclusion Is That A Non-trivial Portion Of The Electorate Manages To Escape The Vicissitudes Of Apathy Or Wanton Bias, And It Is These Citizens -- These Ambivalent Partisans -- Who Reliably Approximate A Desirable Standard Of Democratic Citizenship. Preface -- Partisan Ambivalence And The Contingent Nature Of Political Judgment -- Getting It Right, Making It Easy, And Validating Our Partisan Commitments -- Matters Of Conceptualization, Measurement, And Antecedents -- Partisan Ambivalence And Preference Formation -- Ambivalence And The Partisan Perceptual Screen -- Ambivalent Partisans At The Polls -- Unmoved Mover Or Rational Choice? Ambivalence And The Dynamic Nature Of Partisanship -- Partisan Ambivalence, Citizen Competence, And American Democracy. Howard G. Lavine, Christopher D. Johnston, And Marco R. Steenbergen. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. How do ordinary citizens form their political judgments, and how good are those judgments from a normative perspective? The central claim of this book is that high-quality political judgment hinges less on citizens'cognitive ability than on their willingness to temporarily suspend partisan habits and follow the'evidence'wherever it leads. Ambivalent partisans are those who experience a disjuncture between their political identities and their evaluations of party performance. Drawing on both experimental and survey methods -- as well as five decades of American political history -- the authors demonstrate that compared to other citizens, ambivalent partisans perceive the political world accurately, form their policy preferences in a principled manner, and communicate those preferences by making issues an important component of their electoral decisions. Dedications 6 Contents 10 Preface 12 Acknowledgments 18 1 Partisan Ambivalence and the Contingent Nature of Political Judgment 22 3 Conceptualization, Measurement, and Antecedents 68 4 Partisan Ambivalence and Preference Formation: Experimental and Survey Evidence 104 5 Ambivalence and the Partisan Perceptual Screen 142 6 Ambivalent Partisans at the Polls 174 7 Unmoved Mover or Running Tally? Ambivalence and the Dynamic Nature of Partisanship 202 8 Partisan Ambivalence, Citizen Competence, and American Democracy 220 Appendix A 246 Appendix B 272 Appendix C 274 References 286 Index 306