Drawing towards particularly rich research, we find you to definitely ACA perceptions are smaller polarized in the says where Republican governors have revealed assistance to have Medicaid extension. We also select effective evidence you to viewpoint is far more polarized when you look at the claims where Democratic governors mention help to possess your state-built medical insurance exchange, but right here your situation was quicker clear-cut. Although we pertain lots of empirical strategies to exclude situations regarding endogeneity, it’s feasible for Republican governors had even more flexibility during the political environment where mass polarization try including lowest. I contextualize so it selecting in a bigger theoretic build, determine it in detail, make the circumstances to possess why it things, and you will story the additional questions it increases in the years ahead, along with how-to understand the leads to that person out-of endogeneity.
MISALIGNED PARTISAN Surroundings
Misaligned partisan environment in the county height (when condition governmental elites follow a salient policy standing one to do maybe not align with partisan traditional) is officially and substantively consequential. Into the a years away from extreme partisan polarization, it’s risky and difficult having county partisan elites to make conclusion that are running stop for the hopes of sometimes its elite copartisans (from the condition otherwise federal level) otherwise their key constituencies. Depending on the ACA, scholars have finally started to consider the reason why county political elites enjoys pursued policy routes one to rub facing common partisan standard and you may expose them to different types of risk (Fording and you may Patton 2020; Jacobs and you may Callaghan 2013; Nicholson-Crotty 2012; Rose 2015; Scott 2013). In this post, i move to various other matter: which are the effects of misaligned partisan environment for bulk personal opinion?
Investigating the end result off misaligned partisan environments to your preferred governmental thinking reveals a critical path for dancing knowledge of the new complex relationship ranging from democracy, societal coverage, and public opinion from inside the a great polarized, federated polity. Scholars provides increasingly unearthed that the fresh linkages ranging from public-opinion and societal rules aren’t whatsoever straightforward. Policymakers don’t simply answer personal choice. Rather, democratic responsiveness is conditioned by a number of points together with group, race, electoral framework, partisan https://www.datingranking.net/colombiancupid-review alignments, and much more (Canes-Wrone 2015; Bartels 2008; Grogan and you will Park 2018). In spite of these wider strokes, far has been unfamiliar concerning standards under and therefore elites sway mass thinking. We high light an exceptionally lighting up type of query because of the examining exactly how state contexts out-of partisan misalignment apply to well-known plan perceptions.
Additionally, the connection ranging from public opinion and you may political responsiveness should be reciprocal: signs of political elites figure social thinking (Zaller 1992; Jacobs and you may Shapiro 2000)
I predict misaligned partisan environments to influence public opinion to your ACA. More accurately, we hypothesize that viewpoints into the newest ACA could be most polarized inside the claims that have lined up partisan environments (where Democrat authorities help expansion and you may condition transfers and you may Republican authorities contradict him or her) and you may least polarized when you look at the says which have misaligned partisan policy environment (where Republican officials support at the very least some kind of execution). All of our objections others to your a couple of assumptions. Basic, that state-top policy signs determine ACA thinking whatsoever. So it assumption are substantiated because of the current evidence that adoption from this new ACA swayed help having shelling out for medical care from the national top (Morgan and you can Kang 2015) which the latest time and type regarding gubernatorial announcements away from marketplace ACA choices is related to condition-level ACA perceptions (Pacheco and you can Maltby 2017, 2019).
The second assumption-and this we empirically test in this post-is that partisanship influences the way residents reply to county-peak policy conclusion from governmental elites. Brand new ACA is actually a supply of salient partisan argument and you may an insurance policy you to definitely may differ widely across says (Richardson and you may Konisky 2013). This means that that county-height partisan signs is going to be for example important in framing ACA coverage tastes. Particularly for complex regulations for instance the ACA, customers most likely trust partisan cues getting information. Partisanship, ergo, says to popular suggestions regarding rules as a result of choosy pointers techniques. One process is actually passionate reason (Bolsen, Druckman, and you can Make 2014; Druckman, Peterson, and you will Slothuus 2013; Leeper and Slothuus 2014; Taber and you can Resort 2006). Determined reasoning is the tendency to look for guidance one to verifies earlier viewpoints . . . examine facts consistent with earlier in the day feedback because the healthier or maybe more active . . . and you may spend more go out arguing and you can dismissing facts contradictory which have previous opinions” (Druckman, Peterson, and you may Slothuus 2013, 59). Driven need ‘s the psychological method where partisans usually write off, counterargue, or disregard the latest pointers one pressures established opinions. Contrastingly, when owners was served with guidance congruent that have predispositions, every piece of information might be easily recognized just like the “it requires zero efforts to just accept exactly what that currently knows try true” (Redlawsk 2002, 1023).
