Issues versus Affect: How Do Elite and Mass Polarization Compare?

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that political elites harbor more ideologically constrained issue attitudes and are more polarized on such issues than their mass counterparts. In contrast, the mass public is more polarized in its emotional reactions to political stimuli. How affective polarization among the mass public compares to affective polarization among elites is, however, an open question. Using items common to the Convention Delegate Studies and American National Election Studies, I compare the mass public to political elites when it comes to both affective and ideological polarization. I find that elites are more affectively polarized than the mass public and more affectively polarized than they are ideologically polarized, although mass affective polarization has increased over time. These findings provide context for understanding the extent to which the mass public has affectively polarized and demonstrate that elites, despite ideological capabilities, exhibit extreme emotional reactions toward political groups just like their mass counterparts.