Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Political control & influence > Public opinion & polls
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Political Choice in a Polarized America - How Elite Polarization Shapes Mass Behavior (Hardcover)
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Political Choice in a Polarized America - How Elite Polarization Shapes Mass Behavior (Hardcover)
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What motivates citizens to support one party over the other? Do
they carefully weigh all of the relevant issues and assess which
party or candidate best matches their own positions? Or do people
look at politics as something more akin to a team sport-the
specifics do not matter as long as you know what side your team is
on? Answering these questions requires us to think about how much
the average American knows about politics. Many scholars of public
opinion believe that the majority of Americans only pay passing
attention to politics. Thus the electorate's apparent lack of
political competence presents a direct challenge to normative
theories of democracy. How are citizens supposed to exert control
over the government if they have no idea what is going on? In
Political Choice in a Polarized America, Joshua N. Zingher argues
that these fears are overblown. Not only do individuals have core
beliefs about what the government should or should not do, but
individuals have become more likely to support the party that best
matches their policy attitudes by both identifying as a member of
that party and voting for that party in elections. However, as
Zingher demonstrates, voters' ability to match their attitudes to a
party or candidate varies according to signals sent by elites and
increases as parties become more polarized. This is true even among
citizens with less political knowledge and efficacy. Voters now
consistently cast ballots for the candidates who best match their
own policy orientations and are increasingly likely to express
hostility towards members of the other party due to growing elite
polarization. Moreover, policy preferences tend to remain stable
over time and both shape and are shaped by partisanship. Tackling
decades of mixed findings about the prevalence (or lack) of policy
voting, Zingher argues that the average American is much more
likely to vote for the party that best represents their views than
they were in the past. American voters have adapted to a more
polarized environment by becoming more polarized themselves.
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