Elite Polarization and Voter Partisanship: A Comparative Perspective:

Scholars view elite polarization with trepidation. But polarization may clarify voters' choices and generate stronger party attachments. Such attachments may be desirable in developing democracies, where partisanship institutionalizes party systems and stabilizes elections. Yet the causal link between elite polarization and voter partisanship remains unclear and untested. I look to theories of partisanship to derive implications about the relationships among elite polarization, voters' perceptions of polarization, and voter partisanship. I test those implications using cross-national and longitudinal survey data. My results confirm the causal effect of elite polarization on voter partisanship. Polarization correlates with individual partisanship across a broad range of countries. Voters in polarized systems perceive their parties to be more polarized. Perceiving elite polarization makes voters more likely to be partisan. That relationship appears to be causal: using a long-term panel survey from the US, I find that voters become more partisan as they perceive elite polarization increasing