Party Affiliation Research Articles

Does (Non-)Localness Affect MPs’ Levels of Responsiveness? Evidence from a UK Field Experiment

Abstract Does an MP's localness affect their behaviour towards constituents? Existing research has shown biases in MPs' responsiveness to citizens based on citizens' sociodemographic and political traits and voters’ tendency to prefer ‘local’ MPs. Yet, we know little about whether MPs' localness affects their responsiveness to constituents. MPs' localness may influence their behaviour for strategic reasons and/or because of homophily. To explore this relationship, we conducted a field experiment in the United Kingdom where we asked legislators about their policy priorities regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that local MPs do not differentiate in their responsiveness to constituents. However, non-local MPs are motivated by party affiliation and gender in their responsiveness to constituents, with ethnicity and class playing insignificant roles. Non-local MPs respond more to co-partisans than non-partisans and women non-local MPs are more responsive to women constituents. This experiment underscores the impact of (non-)localness on MPs' interactions with constituents.

Experience of Personal Loss Due to Drug Overdose Among US Adults

Since 1999, over 1 million people have died of a drug overdose in the US. However, little is known about the bereaved, meaning their family, friends, and acquaintances, and their views on the importance of addiction as a policy priority. To quantify the scope of the drug overdose crisis in terms of personal overdose loss (ie, knowing someone who died of a drug overdose) and to assess the policy implications of this loss. This cross-sectional study used data from a nationally representative survey of US adults (age ≥18 years), the fourth wave of the COVID-19 and Life Stressors Impact on Mental Health and Well-Being (CLIMB) study, which was conducted from March to April 2023. Respondents reported whether they knew someone who died of a drug overdose and the nature of their relationship with the decedent(s). They also reported their political party affiliation and rated the importance of addiction as a policy issue. Logistic regression models estimated the associations between sociodemographic characteristics and political party affiliation and the probability of experiencing a personal overdose loss and between the experience of overdose loss and the perceived salience of addiction as a policy issue. Survey weights adjusted for sampling design and nonresponse. Of the 7802 panelists invited to participate, 2479 completed the survey (31.8% response rate); 153 were excluded because they did not know whether they knew someone who died of a drug overdose, resulting in a final analytic sample of 2326 (51.4% female; mean [SD] age, 48.12 [0.48] years). Of these respondents, 32.0% (95% CI, 28.8%-34.3%) reported any personal overdose loss, translating to 82.7 million US adults. A total of 18.9% (95% CI, 17.1%-20.8%) of all respondents, translating to 48.9 million US adults, reported having a family member or close friend die of drug overdose. Personal overdose loss was more prevalent among groups with lower income (<$30 000: 39.9%; ≥$100 000: 26.0%). The experience of overdose loss did not differ across political party groups (Democrat: 29.0%; Republican: 33.0%; independent or none: 34.2%). Experiencing overdose loss was associated with a greater odds of viewing addiction as an extremely or very important policy issue (adjusted odds ratio, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.09-1.72) after adjustment for sociodemographic and geographic characteristics and political party affiliation. This cross-sectional study found that 32% of US adults reported knowing someone who died of a drug overdose and that personal overdose loss was associated with greater odds of endorsing addiction as an important policy issue. The findings suggest that mobilization of this group may be an avenue to facilitate greater policy change.

Media Slant and Public Policy Views

We study how exposure to partisan news channels (i.e., Fox News vs. MSNBC) affects individual views on four policy issues — climate change, gun rights, abortion, and immigration. First, using GPT to annotate news transcripts, we document large differences in the way the two networks cover these issues. Second, exploiting exogenous variation in viewership due to channels' positions in cable lineups, we show that exposure to Fox News (MSNBC) is associated with more conservative (progressive) views, even when controlling for self-reported ideology and party affiliation. Our findings indicate that partisan media contribute to the rise of political polarization in the US.

Doxing, political affiliation, and type of information: Effects on suspicion, perceived similarity, and hiring-related judgments.

Researchers have begun to focus on the influence of political affiliation in organizations. In this context, we investigated how doxing (i.e., using social media to post information online with malintent) influences hiring-related decisions. Based on the integration of a political affiliation and state suspicion model, we investigated how a dox containing different types of information (affirming a political party affiliation vs. providing derogatory/negative information about an opposing party) and political party affiliation similarity influenced hiring-related perceptions of job applicants. Given doxing's characteristics, we expanded the "decision space" to include effects about expected organizational image and expected retaliation. In Study 1, we found that the type of information and party similarity influenced suspicion of the applicant and perceived similarity with the applicant, whereas doxing only influenced suspicion. In turn, suspicion and perceived similarity predicted expected task performance and organizational image, and exploratory analyses suggested an interactive effect of these variables. Suspicion also predicted expected retaliation from individuals outside the organization. In Study 2, we confirmed that doxing was related to suspicion as well as the interactive effect of information type and party similarity. We explain that interaction using the notion of symbolic threat. In both studies, the effects of type of information and party similarity were pervasive. Our results support the similarity-attraction paradigm and a model of political affiliation. Expanding relevant theories to include suspicion helps better understand politically related judgments and the additional outcomes of expected organizational image and retaliation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Legislature size and welfare: Evidence from Brazil

AbstractHow does legislature size impact public service provision? Despite the importance of institutional design for democratic governance, the effect of legislative features on citizen welfare remains little understood. In this article, we use a formal model to show that increasing legislature size improves public goods delivery. We argue that changes in bargaining costs depend on whether additional legislators share the executive's party affiliation: More opposition members reduce the equilibrium public goods provision, while more government‐aligned members increase it. We test this theory by exploiting sharp discontinuities in city‐council size in Brazil. We show that an additional city councilor has a 91% chance of belonging to the mayoral coalition, and this significantly improves primary school enrollment and infant mortality rates. To explore possible mechanisms, we surveyed 174 former city councilors and analyzed 346,553 bills proposed between 2005 and 2008. This article has implications for the design of representative institutions.

Post-Covid 19 Nigeria and the 2023 General Elections

The experience of the Nigerian masses during the 2019 Corona Virus period and the October 2020 youth protest popularly called ENDSARS yet again reflected that the political class cared less for the welfare of the ordinary Nigerians. The governance deficit within the government circle was brought to the fore. This paper examined democratic engagement in Nigeria’s post-COVID-19 general elections, 2023 to interrogate how their experiences in the two events have impacted their response, especially regarding their voting pattern and other fronts of participation. The paper adopted the participatory democratic theory, which espouses that democracy is a model that allows the citizens to make political decisions. It employed both primary and secondary sources of information to gather the required data. The primary data was analysed using simple percentages. The major argument is that bad leadership and failure to be accountable to the citizens led to the protests and civil disturbances that shaped the voting pattern. Democracy gains more credibility when the leaders are accountable to the governed. The lack of it, on the other hand, breeds frustration and rebellion among the populace, hence, the emergence of violence and protest of different forms exemplified by the #EndSars protest in October 2020. It also argued that participation of the electorates in the 2023 general elections tilted toward candidates across party lines rather than strictly political parties’ candidates. That is, voters considered voting for candidates, not minding their political party affiliations, in their choice of leaders. It concluded that rather than having core party politics, candidate politics was the order of the day. It recommended inter alia that poverty should be reduced to its barest minimum to curtail vote buying and selling.

Extreme weather experience and climate change risk perceptions: The roles of partisanship and climate change cause attribution

Climate change risk perceptions are crucial in influencing individuals' behavioral changes and shaping policy preferences for climate change mitigation. Experience of recent extreme weather events may enhance people's awareness of climate change and thus alter their attitudes toward climate change. This study examines the correlations between extreme weather experience and climate change risk perceptions using Australia's most recent representative national survey data (2020 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes). The results demonstrate that the positive effect of extreme weather experience on climate change risk perceptions, both to the World and to Australia, became nonsignificant when all variables were controlled. Notably, extreme weather experiences amplified the perceptions of climate change risk among individuals without party affiliations, but they did not affect those with solid party affiliations, neither with the National-Liberal Coalition nor Labor or the Greens. Furthermore, the impact of extreme weather experiences on climate change risk perceptions is not direct but primarily indirect through individuals' cause attribution of climate change. This paper provides valuable insights into the linkage mechanism between extreme weather experience and climate change risk perceptions.

State Legislation Related to School Nutrition: Predictors of Bill Passage From 2010–2019

ObjectiveThis study aimed to discover the prevalence of school nutrition state legislation and to identify the correlates of enactment. Design, Setting, and ParticipantsAn online legislative database, Legiscan, was used to collect bills related to school nutrition from the US from 2010 to 2019. Bills were coded and compiled into a study database with state-level dietary variables (obesity prevalence, fruit, and vegetable intake, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption), community variables (percent White, poverty), and bill-characteristic variables (party affiliation in legislature, strength of language, party of governor, school gardens, vegetable intake, and other salient variables). Multivariable models were built to examine predictors of bill enactment. ResultsOf the 462 bills introduced, 38.7% (n = 156) were enacted. In a multivariable model, the strength of bill language, political party affiliation, implementation of school gardens, and vegetable intake were the variables associated with bill passage. Bills with strong language were less likely to be enacted (P <0.001). Bills introduced by Democrats were more likely to be enacted (P = 0.01). Conclusion and ImplicationThis study showed a better understanding of legislative support for child nutrition via policy surveillance of bills and their correlates of enactment. This information can be used to prioritize advocacy efforts and identify ways research can better inform policy.

Preferences for AI Explanations Based on Cognitive Style and Socio-Cultural Factors

Designing AI systems with the capacity to explain their behaviour is paramount to enable human oversight, facilitate trust, promote acceptance of technology and, ultimately, empower users and improve their experience. There are, however, several challenges to explainable AI, one of which is the generation and selection of explanations from the causal history of a given event. Causal attribution, among other cognitive processes, has been found to be influenced by socio-cultural factors, which suggests that there could be systematic differences in preferences for AI explanations between communities of users according to their cognitive style and socio-cultural characteristics. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between preferences in the explanations provided by belief-desire-intention AI agents, cognitive style (holistic vs analytical), and socio-cultural factors, such as gender, education, social class, and political and religious beliefs. We found a relationship between explanation preference, cognitive style and various socio-cultural characteristics. Holistic cognitive style is associated with preference for goal explanations while analytic cognitive style is associated with preference for belief explanations. Socio-cultural variables that affect explanation preference are gender, religious beliefs, educational attainment, some fields of education, and political party affiliation.

The heterogeneous role of party affiliation in the runner‐up effect

SummaryA recent finding establishes that second‐place candidates perform substantially better over third‐place candidates in future electoral races. We show that this estimated effect masks substantial heterogeneity with respect to the party affiliation of the candidates. Only runner‐ups without a major party backing in election have significant prospects over the third‐place candidates in election , in terms of either recontesting or winning. Our finding suggests that political parties and voters, while strategically coordinating on the runner‐ups in election , also take into account the party backing as a potential signal of their intrinsic quality.

Strategic choices and electoral gains: unpacking constituency campaign effectiveness in Germany's mixed-member electoral system

ABSTRACT Election campaigns are a critical component of democratic competition, and existing literature has extensively discussed the rise in personalization and localization in recent campaigns. However, the extent to which campaign strategies influence electoral success remains controversial. Therefore, our study examined the impact of candidate – and constituency-centred campaigns on nominal and party-list votes in mixed-member electoral systems and investigated which strategies were most effective on election day. Our analysis draws on representative national candidate surveys for German federal elections in 2009, 2013, and 2017. Our findings indicate that personalized campaign communication significantly affects electoral success, with greater emphasis on the candidate than the party, resulting in increased nominal votes. Our results also suggest that parties benefit from personalized campaigns as they increase party-list votes as well. However, neither localized campaign issues nor candidate-centred campaign organization pay off in electoral terms. Furthermore, candidates’ party affiliation significantly influences electoral success, demonstrating the continued relevance of parties to campaign dynamics and electoral outcomes.

Analysis of the evolution of environmental laws in Puerto Rico (1897–2021): A new classification system, trends, and political influences

This paper aims to present a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of environmental law in Puerto Rico from 1897 to 2021. The study identifies significant legislative developments, with a surge in federal and local laws post-1960, correlating with heightened environmental awareness. Political dynamics, notably party affiliations, significantly influence the level of legal protection afforded to the environment. A new classification system is introduced to analyze laws based on ecosystem and resource protection. Distinct periods of legislative activity are identified, with federal laws predominant from 1960 to 1990 and state laws from 1990 to 2021, revealing a unique pattern of legislative "pulses." Federal laws primarily address coastal ecosystems and pollution mitigation, while state laws focus on land ecosystems, reserves, and resource management. The study establishes a statistically significant correlation between the passage of time and the number of enacted laws, indicating an upward trend in environmental legislation. Additionally, it highlights the impact of political parties on lawmaking, with variations in legislative output observed under different party control scenarios. The study found that the legislative output in both the US and Puerto Rico was affected by party control. Specifically, when the Republican Party or the local Popular Democratic Party controls the House of Representatives or the Senate, the output of environmental legislation decreases. On the other hand, the study suggests that the US President's party identity has a lesser effect on enacting environmental laws. The study underscores the intricate relationship between politics and environmental policy, emphasizing the significance of political dynamics in shaping environmental law. The findings offer valuable insights for policymakers, environmentalists, and stakeholders, aiding in developing more effective strategies for sustainable development and conservation in Puerto Rico. Recommendations include utilizing the comprehensive table of environmental regulations to detect agency overlaps and investigate the correlation between legal protection and ecosystem health.

Republican governor, unified government, and the U.S. states’ death penalty executions

ABSTRACT Currently, 24 states in the U.S. still permit the death penalty, along with three states temporarily suspending it. Nevertheless, there exists substantial variation in the extent to which each state actually carries out the executions. While studies have explored factors influencing this variation, little attention has been paid to the political role of state governors’ and legislatures’ support in the different tendencies toward death penalty executions across states. To fill this gap, we empirically tested how governors’ party affiliation and unified political support from the legislature affect death penalty executions in the U.S. We demonstrated that states with a Republican governor are more likely to execute the death penalty. Additionally, we found that this tendency is significantly stronger when both chambers of the state legislature are dominated by Republicans (i.e. Republican-unified government), which is consistent with the theoretical expectation of unified government discourse in the policy making and implementation contexts.

Responses to political partisans are shaped by a COVID-19-sensitive disease avoidance psychology: A longitudinal investigation of functional flexibility.

How do natural changes in disease avoidance motivation shape thoughts about and behaviors toward ingroup and outgroup members? During the COVID-19 pandemic, political party affiliation has been a strong predictor in the United States of COVID-19-related opinions, attitudes, and behaviors. Using a six-wave longitudinal panel survey of representative Americans (on Prolific, N = 1,124, from April 2020 to February 2021), we explored how naturally occurring changes across time in both risks of COVID-19 infection and people's disease avoidance motivation shaped thoughts about and behaviors toward Republicans and Democrats (e.g., perceived infection threat, feelings of disgust, desires to avoid). We found a significant effect of dispositional level of motivation, over and above powerful effects of in-party favoritism/out-party derogation: Participants with a dispositionally stronger motivation to avoid disease showed greater infection management responses, especially toward Republicans; this held even for Republican participants. More importantly, we also found a significant interactive effect of within-person variability and ecological infection risk: Participants who sensitively upregulated their motivation during the rapid spread of COVID-19 perceived greater infection threat by Republicans and felt less disgust toward and desire to avoid Democrats. This finding, too, held for Republican participants. These results provide evidence of functionally flexible within-person psychological disease avoidance-a theoretically important process long presumed and now demonstrated-and suggest another mechanism contributing to U.S. political polarization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Sentiments and spending intentions: Evidence from Florida

AbstractConsumer sentiment is considered an important indicator of changes in household spending. However, the evidence of the causal relationship between sentiment and consumption is mixed and scarce. We address this gap using data from the monthly Florida Consumer Attitude Survey, which captures party affiliation, consumer sentiment, and spending intentions since 1991. We employ political partisanship as an instrument for sentiment and find a significant effect of sentiment on spending intentions. Finally, we provide evidence that spending intentions relate to actual spending and show that spending increased among counties with a larger share of Republican voters following the 2016 presidential election.

County-level political group density, partisan polarization, and individual-level mortality among adults in the United States: A lagged multilevel study

ObjectiveTo investigate the associations between county-level political group density, partisan polarization, and individual-level mortality from all causes and from coronary heart disease (CHD) in the United States. MethodsUsing data from five survey waves (1998–2006) of the General Social Survey-National Death Index dataset and the County Presidential Election Return 2000 dataset, we fit weighted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the associations between (1) political group density and (2) partisan polarization measured at the county level in 2000 (n = 313 counties) categorized into quartiles with individual-level mortality (n = 14,983 participants) from all causes and CHD, controlling for individual- and county-level factors. Maximum follow-up was from one year after the survey up until 2014. We conducted these analyses using two separate measures based on county-level vote share differences and party affiliation ideological extremes. ResultsIn the overall sample, we found no evidence of associations between county-level political group density and individual-level mortality from all causes. There was evidence of a 13% higher risk of dying from heart disease in the highest quartile of county-level polarization (hazards ratio, HR = 1.13; 95% CI = 0.74–1.71). We observed heterogeneity of effects based on individual-level political affiliation. Among those identifying as Democrats, residing in counties with high (vs. low) levels of polarization appeared to be protective against mortality, with an associated 18% lower risk of dying from all causes (HR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.71–0.94). This association was strongest in areas with the highest concentrations of Democrats. ConclusionsAmong all study participants, political group density and polarization at the county level in 2000 were not linked to individual-level mortality. At the same time, we found that Democratic party affiliation may be protective against the adverse effects of high polarization, particularly in counties with high concentrations of Democrats. Future research should further explore these associations to potentially identify new structural interventions to address political determinants of population health.

Why Do Non‐Resident Citizens Get Elected? Candidates' Electoral Success in Ecuadorian Extraterritorial Districts

To the growing literature on non-resident citizens’ special representation, we contribute with a systematic examination of the role of descriptive representation of citizens living abroad in elections for extraterritorial districts. Using data for the 308 candidacy observations in three two-seat extraterritorial districts in five legislative elections held between 2007 and 2021 in Ecuador, for a total of 30 seats, we test four hypotheses related to the electoral rules, party-level, and socio-demographic factors of non-resident candidates. Ecuadorian non-resident candidates benefit from their incumbency position and party affiliation, along with left-wing ideological ascription and belonging to party organizations that pushed for voting rights abroad and that manifest an interest in emigrant issues. This article contributes to showing what gets emigrants elected in extraterritorial seats and offers a within-country comparison connecting elections with legislative politics across national borders.

Impact of opponents’ race, gender, and party on U.S. congressional fundraising

AbstractObjectiveA donation for a candidate can be motivated by support for that candidate or by opposition to the candidate's opponent. This study tests the impact that race, gender, and party affiliation of the candidate and the candidate's opponent have on the candidate's fundraising.MethodsThis study uses data from the 2016, 2018, and 2020 U.S. congressional elections to estimate a regression model where the dependent variable is funds raised by each mainstream party candidate, with party, race, and gender of the candidate and the candidate's opponent accounted for in the model, as well as district competitiveness, district economic and demographic characteristics, and whether the seat is open.ResultsFemale Democrats and non‐white male Democrats have a fundraising advantage when running against a white male Republican. Female Republicans or non‐white male Republicans do not have this advantage when running against white male Democrats.ConclusionThe interaction effects of gender and race on fundraising for a candidate and opponent are different depending on party affiliation, and the characteristics of both the candidate and the candidate's opponent must be considered for these effects to be visible.

All aboard? An analysis of public opinion regarding high‐speed rail

AbstractObjectiveHigh‐speed rail is not well utilized in the United States. This study examines public interest in high‐speed rail and the role the apparent urban–rural political divide may play in its establishment.MethodsData from a sample of 1648 U.S. residents and 515 Texas residents surveyed in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 were analyzed to determine their likelihood of choosing high‐speed rail if it was available.ResultsResults found that 35 percent of national respondents and 52 percent of Texas respondents indicated they are likely to choose high‐speed rail. Characteristics such as age, education, gender, and political party affiliation had a statistically significant relationship with a respondent's likelihood of choosing high‐speed rail.ConclusionThis analysis indicates an interest in high‐speed rail in both samples. Many of the characteristics of those likely to choose high‐speed rail are consistent with typical early adopters of innovation. Democrats seem more likely to consider high‐speed rail, however identifying as either a Republican or a Democrat resulted in a positive, statistically significant relationship with an interest in high‐speed rail in the Texas sample. While this discussion does appear to have a partisan divide, other characteristics seem to be a strong predictor of interest in high‐speed rail.

Do immigrants support environmentalism? – Immigrants’ environmental socialization in the United States

As globalisation continues, heated debates over immigrants’ environmental behaviours in the U.S. have been prominent in recent years. While research has generally focused on the association between political affiliation and pro-environmental values, only a few studies have specifically explored immigrants’ pro-environmental values in the U.S. Utilizing a pooled dataset spanning 3 years (2017, 2020, and 2022) from the Cooperative Election Study and employing a multilevel model, we empirically tested three hypotheses regarding immigrants’ pro-environmental attitudes: the globalization hypothesis, the prosperity hypothesis, and the political socialization hypothesis. Our results supported all three hypotheses. On average, immigrants exhibited higher environmental scores than the native-born population. In addition, we identified generational differences, with the 1st generation immigrants showing the highest environmental scores, while the 2nd generation immigrants fell between the 1st generation and the native-born. Compared to the native-born population, party affiliation played a smaller role in immigrants’ formation of pro-environmental values. Democratic immigrants tended to be less pro-environment than democratic locals, while Republican immigrants were more pro-environment than Republican locals.