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Parties in the Public Eye

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Jennifer Wolak  and
Andrea McAtee
Jennifer Wolak*
Affiliation:
University of Colorado at Boulder, USA
Andrea McAtee
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
*
Jennifer Wolak, Department of Political Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, 333 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0333, USA. Email: wolakj@colorado.edu
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Abstract

To what degree do people distinguish the partisan divisions of national politics from the partisan battles within their state? We explore why people hold favorable views of the political parties in their state, investigating the degree to which such evaluations are simply an artifact of national considerations, or responsive to the political performance and ideological leanings of the state political parties. Using a national survey from 2007, we consider why people like or dislike the Democratic and Republican Parties in their states. While ratings of the state political parties carry the imprint of national political considerations, they are also responsive to the character of state parties. As the liberalism of state parties increases, liberals offer increasingly favorable evaluations of the Democratic Party, while conservatives offer increasingly negative party evaluations. Under Republican state legislatures, better economic performance translates into greater support for the party. Popular support for state political parties rests in part on the policy positions these parties take and the party's performance in office.

Keywords

public opinionpolitical partiesparties and interest groupsparty organizationsfederal/statefederalismpolitical behavior
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 398 - 421
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2013

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