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Affective polarization and habits of political participation

Phillips, Joseph B. 2024. Affective polarization and habits of political participation. Electoral Studies 87 , 102733. 10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102733

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Abstract

Affective polarization, or relative dislike of opposing partisans, is associated with several negative outcomes for democracy. However, a number of studies argue that affective polarization has one positive democratic consequence: it spurs political participation. However, political participation, especially voting, is habitual, and the factors that spur people to start participating are not the same as those that sustain participation once it is initiated. Existing work does not address this distinction. Leveraging large-scale survey data linked to validated measures of turnout as well as panel data, this paper shows that affective polarization mainly serves to sustain existing habits of turnout. In contrast, there is little evidence that affective polarization motivates people who did not previously participate to begin doing so. These results indicate that instead of improving democratic outcomes, affective polarization exacerbates existing inequities in political participation.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Cardiff Law & Politics
Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR)
Publisher: Elsevier
ISSN: 0261-3794
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 1 September 2024
Date of Acceptance: 5 December 2023
Last Modified: 02 Sep 2024 10:32
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/171701

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