2021/02/11 by Amalie Jensen, William Marble, Kenneth F. Scheve +1 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
paper · doi:10.1017/psrm.2020.56
openalex publication_date 2021/02/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/10
Abstract How pervasive is partisan sorting and polarization over public policies in the American public? We examine whether the barriers of partisan sorting and polarization seen in national politics extend to important local policies that shape economic development. To describe the extent of partisan sorting and polarization over local development policies, we employ conjoint survey experiments in representative surveys of eight US metropolitan areas and a hierarchical modeling strategy for studying heterogeneity across respondents. We find that strong partisans are sorted by party in some of their policy opinions, but rarely polarized. The same voters who disagree about national issues have similar preferences about local development issues suggesting a greater scope for bipartisan problem solving at the local level.