On the Representativeness of Primary Electorates

2018/03/13 by John Sides, Chris Tausanovitch, Lynn Vavreck +1 · 4 citations
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Gender Politics and Representation #Populism, Right-Wing Movements

paper · doi:10.1017/s000712341700062x

Abstract

Primary voters are frequently characterized as an ideologically extreme subset of their party, and thus partially responsible for party polarization in government. This study uses a combination of administrative records on primary turnout and five recent surveys from 2008–14 to show that primary voters have similar demographic attributes and policy attitudes as rank-and-file voters in their party. These similarities do not vary according to the openness of the primary. These results suggest that the composition of primary electorates does not exert a polarizing effect above what might arise from voters in the party as a whole.

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