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Conflict or choice? The differential effects of elite incivility and ideological polarization on political support

How does elite polarization impact citizens’ political support? While elite polarization generally has a negative connotation, we argue that it is crucial to distinguish its potential manifestations. The present study analyzes the impact of perceived elite polarization on political support by disent...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: van Elsas, Erika, Fiselier, Toine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Palgrave Macmillan UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9979886/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41269-023-00288-5
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author van Elsas, Erika
Fiselier, Toine
author_facet van Elsas, Erika
Fiselier, Toine
author_sort van Elsas, Erika
collection PubMed
description How does elite polarization impact citizens’ political support? While elite polarization generally has a negative connotation, we argue that it is crucial to distinguish its potential manifestations. The present study analyzes the impact of perceived elite polarization on political support by disentangling the effects of elite incivility from those of ideological polarization, and, additionally, by analyzing different dimensions of ideological polarization (i.e., along a general left–right, economic, and cultural dimension). Using survey data from the Dutch Parliamentary Election Survey 2021, we find that perceived incivility has a negative impact on political support. In contrast, perceived left–right polarization and economic issue polarization have a positive effect on political support, while cultural polarization has no effect. These findings show that elite polarization can convey both perceptions of conflict and choice to citizens, and that its impact on political support crucially depends on the dimension of polarization under study. Our study thereby refines our knowledge of the attitudinal consequences of elite polarization.
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spelling pubmed-99798862023-03-03 Conflict or choice? The differential effects of elite incivility and ideological polarization on political support van Elsas, Erika Fiselier, Toine Acta Polit Original Article How does elite polarization impact citizens’ political support? While elite polarization generally has a negative connotation, we argue that it is crucial to distinguish its potential manifestations. The present study analyzes the impact of perceived elite polarization on political support by disentangling the effects of elite incivility from those of ideological polarization, and, additionally, by analyzing different dimensions of ideological polarization (i.e., along a general left–right, economic, and cultural dimension). Using survey data from the Dutch Parliamentary Election Survey 2021, we find that perceived incivility has a negative impact on political support. In contrast, perceived left–right polarization and economic issue polarization have a positive effect on political support, while cultural polarization has no effect. These findings show that elite polarization can convey both perceptions of conflict and choice to citizens, and that its impact on political support crucially depends on the dimension of polarization under study. Our study thereby refines our knowledge of the attitudinal consequences of elite polarization. Palgrave Macmillan UK 2023-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC9979886/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41269-023-00288-5 Text en © Springer Nature Limited 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Original Article
van Elsas, Erika
Fiselier, Toine
Conflict or choice? The differential effects of elite incivility and ideological polarization on political support
title Conflict or choice? The differential effects of elite incivility and ideological polarization on political support
title_full Conflict or choice? The differential effects of elite incivility and ideological polarization on political support
title_fullStr Conflict or choice? The differential effects of elite incivility and ideological polarization on political support
title_full_unstemmed Conflict or choice? The differential effects of elite incivility and ideological polarization on political support
title_short Conflict or choice? The differential effects of elite incivility and ideological polarization on political support
title_sort conflict or choice? the differential effects of elite incivility and ideological polarization on political support
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9979886/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41269-023-00288-5
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