The tie that divides: Cross‐national evidence of the primacy of partyism

2017/08/11 by Sean Westwood, Sean J. Westwood, Shanto Iyengar +4 · 353 citations
Social Sciences · #Closing (real estate) #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Ethnic group #Ideology #Interpersonal ties #Law #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Social and Cultural Dynamics #Social science #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1111/1475-6765.12228

published in European Journal of Political Research 57(2), 333-354 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2017/08/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Abstract Using evidence from Great Britain, the United States, Belgium and Spain, it is demonstrated in this article that in integrated and divided nations alike, citizens are more strongly attached to political parties than to the social groups that the parties represent. In all four nations, partisans discriminate against their opponents to a degree that exceeds discrimination against members of religious, linguistic, ethnic or regional out‐groups. This pattern holds even when social cleavages are intense and the basis for prolonged political conflict. Partisan animus is conditioned by ideological proximity; partisans are more distrusting of parties furthest from them in the ideological space. The effects of partisanship on trust are eroded when partisan and social ties collide. In closing, the article considers the reasons that give rise to the strength of ‘partyism’ in modern democracies.

Citations

• Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision?
• Is Polarization a Myth?
• Expressive Partisanship: Campaign Involvement, Political Emotion, and Partisan Identity
• Horizontal Inequality, Crosscutting Cleavages, and Civil War
• The Limits of Partisan Prejudice

Cited by

• Defending the Status Quo or Seeking Change? Electoral Outcomes, Affective Polarization, and Support for Referendums
• What Do We Measure When We Measure Affective Polarization across Countries?
• The effect of accumulated losses on perceptions of legitimacy
• Cross-Country Trends in Affective Polarization
• Social divides in the age of globalization
• Does affective polarisation increase turnout? Evidence from Germany, The Netherlands and Spain
• How we think about the political stances of others: evidence on projection from Canada, Germany, and the UK
• Polarisation, identity and affect - conceptualising affective polarisation in multi-party systems
• Affective Polarization in Multiparty Systems? Comparing Affective Polarization Towards Voters and Parties in Norway and the United States
• United in success, fragmented in failure: The moderating effect of perceived government performance on affective polarization between coalition partners
• Cross-partisan discussions reduced political polarization between UK voters, but less so when they disagreed
• Attitude Formation Based on Political Views: An Expectancy-Value Model of Interpersonal Likability in Politics
• Implications of ideological bias in social psychology on clinical practice.
• Who deserves student finance? Results from a survey experiment in six advanced capitalist economies
• The Strengthening of Partisan Affect
• Empathic Engagement and Polarization in Multi-Party Democracies: The Case of the Populist Radical Right
• Mainstream partisans’ affective response to (non) cooperation with populist radical right parties
• Executives Strike Back: Political Benefits of Sanctioning the U.S. Supreme Court
• The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States
• Political polarization: Radicalism and immune beliefs
• Partisanship as a Social Identity: Implications for Polarization
• What explains elite affective polarization? Evidence from Canadian politicians
• Affective Polarization in Political and Nonpolitical Settings
• The Evolution of Public Opinion Over Gay Rights in Switzerland
• Camps, not just parties. The dynamic foundations of affective polarization in multi-party systems
• Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response
• Ideological and affective polarization in multiparty systems
• Affective partisan polarization and moral dilemmas during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts
• Polarization under rising inequality and economic decline
• Unequal treatment toward copartisans versus non-copartisans is reduced when partisanship can be falsified. [europepmc]
• The COVID-19-Social Identity-Digital Media Nexus in India: Polarization and Blame. [europepmc]
• The (Null) Effects of Happiness on Affective Polarization, Conspiracy Endorsement, and Deep Fake Recognition: Evidence from Five Survey Experiments in Three Countries. [europepmc]
• The effects of ideological value framing and symbolic racism on pro-environmental behavior. [europepmc]
• Algorithmic Political Bias in Artificial Intelligence Systems. [europepmc]
• Cognitive-motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts. [europepmc]
• Subjective Freedom of Speech: Why Do Citizens Think They Cannot Speak Freely? [europepmc]
• I hate you when I am anxious: Anxiety during the COVID-19 epidemic and ideological hostility. [europepmc]
• Ideological polarization during a pandemic: Tracking the alignment of attitudes toward COVID containment policies and left-right self-identification. [europepmc]
• Individual-Community Misalignment in Partisan Identity Predicts Distancing From Norms During the COVID-19 Pandemic. [europepmc]
• Reputations for treatment of outgroup members can prevent the emergence of political segregation in cooperative networks. [europepmc]
• Cross-partisan discussions reduced political polarization between UK voters, but less so when they disagreed. [europepmc]
• How Do People Conceptualize Narcissism and Narcissistic Individuals? [europepmc]
• Political affiliation or need for cognition? It depends on the post: Comparing key factors related to detecting health disinformation in the U.S. [europepmc]
• Economic Threats, Political and National Identification Predict Affective Polarization: Longitudinal Evidence From Spain. [europepmc]
• Development and Validation of the Affective Polarization Scale. [europepmc]
• Political Polarization and Wellbeing: Investigating Potential Intrapersonal Harm From Affective Polarization. [europepmc]
• Of Pandemics, Politics, and Personality: The Role of Conscientiousness and Political Ideology in Sharing of Fake News [europepmc]

Related

• The Political Theory of Parties and Partisanship: Catching Up
• Partisan attachments in a multidimensional space
• Parties and Voters: What Creates the Ties?
• The Impact of European Integration on Political Parties
• How we think about the political stances of others: evidence on projection from Canada, Germany, and the UK