The chapter shows that partisanship is about more than identifying with a single party over a long period of time. It begins by showing that twice as many citizens have meaningful party ratings than identify with a party, as measured using a conventional indicator of party identification in cross-national surveys. It then shows that citizens’ reactions to election results are partly determined by their ratings of parties, and not only by their party identification or vote choice. They become more satisfied with the working of democracy when a preferred outcome replaces a less preferred outcome. Finally, it shows that parties influence citizens’ opinions regardless of whether they identify with a party as long as there is conflict between parties. The author concludes that, to fully account for the influence of partisanship, scholars should avoid limiting themselves to considering identification with a single party.
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Front Matter
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Part I: Political Partisanship and Democracy
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Part II: Measuring Political Partisanship
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Part III: Origins and Determinants of Political Partisanship
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Part IV: Political Effects of Partisanship
