The Twenty-First Century American Voter: The Dominance of Partisanship

Abstract

This research project is a continuation of the work started by the authors of The American Voter (published in 1960) and other published works that built upon and advanced their findings in later years. The primary source of data is the series of American National Election Surveys conducted by the University of Michigan and UC Berkeley’s SDA program. I test the hypothesis that party identification dominates American politics and has become more significant in recent years despite a growing belief that American politics is now dominated by clashing ideologies. In addition to analyzing the importance of partisanship, I include concepts and ideas from disciplines beyond political science, particularly psychology and economics, to explain why this phenomenon has occurred. There is also a discussion of why this matters for American politics and Americans in general that is based on additional studies, polls, and analyses from Gallop and Pew.