The Effect of Partisan Representation at Different Levels of Government on Satisfaction with Democracy in the United States

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze how variations in partisan representation across different levels of government influence Americans’ satisfaction with the democracy in the United States. We conduct two survey experiments and analyze data from the 2016 American National Election Study postelection survey. We find that Americans are the most satisfied with democracy when their most preferred party controls both the federal and their respective state governments. However, we also find that even if an individual’s least preferred party only controls one level of government, they are still more satisfied with democracy than if their most preferred party controls no levels of government. These findings suggest that competition in elections across both the national and state government, where winning and losing alternates between the two parties, may have positive outcomes for attitudes toward democracy.

COVID-19 coverage from six network and cable news sources in the United States: Representation of misinformation, correction, and portrayals of severity

“…Severity was most often discussed in terms of cases/infections and death rates and less so in terms of symptoms, hospitalizations, and comparisons to international rates. These findings are consistent with the IHSM proposal that differences in the content of media will be consistent with consumers' attitudes and intentions about the topic, as it was previously noted that Republicans and conservatives, who are less likely to believe that the virus is severe (Ruisch et al, 2021;VanDusky-Allen and Shvetsova, 2021), did not trust the two networks that most often discussed disease severity (Jurkowitz et al, 2020). Furthermore, Democrats and liberals were more trusting of these stations and they are also generally more likely to believe the virus is severe.…”

“…Galston, 2021). These differences align with the nation's current stark ideological divide, with those on the political right (Republicans, conservatives) expressing less concern about disease severity and lower support for policies or adjustments to daily life in the name of reducing virus spread, and those on the political left (Democrats, liberals) more concerned about health risks associated with the virus and offering more support for policies that reflect guidelines outlined by public health officials to lower rates of infection (Ruisch et al, 2021;VanDusky-Allen and Shvetsova, 2021). Research indicates that these political distinctions are derived from very different perceptions between groups about the nature and seriousness of the virus itself (Pew Research Center, 2020), which may be attributable to a complex combination of personal and environmental factors that lead to discrepancies in exposure to, and internalization of, different types of information about the virus (Young and Bleakley, 2020).…”

Community Analysis of Networks of Twitter Keywords

“…There is a significant difference in the rate at which residents of Democrat and Republican states are accepting the recommended vaccines. We have also shown the disparity in attention paid to COVID-19 by Republican and Democrat leadership throughout the pandemic, which has also been reflected in the generally stricter lockdown measures in states with a Democrat governor [32].…”

“…Other forms of text based analysis may also be employed to extract more nuance around COVID-19 related tweets, perhaps with a sentiment based analysis. This can also be related more materially to government official voting records on pandemic relief measures and the corresponding intensity of lockdown measures in their respective states, such as the Protective Policy Index (PPI) proposed in [32]. This pandemic and the government response will certainly be studied for years to come, with many different facets to observe and analyze.…”

Partisanship, Policy, and Americans’ Evaluations of State-Level COVID-19 Policies Prior to the 2020 Election

“…Yet, while voters may have been somewhat aware of their states’ policy response to COVID-19, partisanship still likely influenced their views of these policies. Previous research on selective evaluation suggests that partisanship can alter people’s perceptions of government performance (Cornelson and Miloucheva 2020; Iyengar et al 2019; Tilley and Hobolt 2011; VanDusky-Allen and Utych 2021). For instance, Jorgensen et al (2021) indicates that voters in Western Europe who voted for the governing party reported more positive evaluations of their government’s COVID-19 policy response compared to those who did not vote for the governing party.…”