Whose Party Is This? Explaining Perceptions of US Party Ideology
2025-10-04
How do Americans perceive the parties ideologically? Using a multiverse analysis of 720 models, I observe how citizens’ ideological placement of the parties varied from 1990 to 2020 as a function of party ideologies at different levels: in Congress, in state legislatures, and in the electorate. Although public perceptions associate somewhat with elite ideology, more variation is attributable to how citizen-level partisans identify ideologically. This carries mixed implications. On one hand, partisan-ideological sorting in the electorate has made it easier for voters to see the difference between parties. On the other, it leads voters to see the parties as being more extreme than they would otherwise. These findings underscore the extent to which parties, beyond their governmental function, are social groups with norms that are fluid, identifiable, and politically impactful.