Theme Panel: Affect, Polarization and Partisan Identity

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Theme Panel: Affect, Polarization and Partisan Identity

Sat, September 3, 8:00 to 9:30am

The division of the American electorate along affective lines represents a significant shift in the role of partisanship as an identity. Although first generation work on partisan affect has addressed many large questions, there is still much we don’t know. The papers in this panel each explore the consequences of affective polarization on the American political system and address significant gaps in the current literature. This panel addresses the growing public and scholarly interest in political affect—which we believe is especially timely given the proximity of the APSA conference to the 2016 election.

The panel includes papers that address how ideology influences partisan affect (Roush), how independents respond to partisan hostility (Carlin, Love and Westwood), how national identity relates to polarization (Levendusky), how domestic partisan conflict influences foreign perceptions of the US and its citizens (Westwood and Lelkes), and how partisanship has become such a strong social identity (Mason).

This panel is, we believe, cohesive and timely. We have also strived to prepare a panel that is balanced by gender and status (grad students, assistant professors, associate professors and full professors). The research is far along in all cases and the papers will beyond the first draft stage by the annual meeting.

View in the 2016 Online Program.

Chair:
Marc J. Hetherington, Vanderbilt University

Discussant:
Neil Malhotra, Stanford University

Papers:
Out-Party Negativity and the Changing Basis of Party Identification
Carolyn E. Roush
When Independents Polarize: The Case of Partisan Affect
Ryan Carlin, Georgia State University
Gregory Love, University of Mississippi
Sean Westwood, Dartmouth College
Americans, Not Partisans: National Identity & Affective Polarization
Matthew S. Levendusky, University of Pennsylvania
The Effects of Domestic Partisan Conflict on Foreign Opinion and Behavior
Sean Westwood, Dartmouth College
Yphtach Lelkes
The Despairing Electorate
Lilliana Hall Mason