Divergent views of party positions: How ideology and own issue position shape party perception through convergence and divergence processes

Abstract

The current research explores how respondents’ ideology influences their perception of political parties’ stances on various issues. Additionally, we examine how three distinct indicators of ideological strength—congruence between ideology and party affiliation, level of education, and engagement in political activities—affect these perceptions. Our empirical analyses rely on data from the 1968–2012 Cumulative American National Election Study dataset, which captures respondents’ views on the stances of US political parties regarding ten key issues. We find that, after controlling for respondents’ own issue positions, (i) perceptions of the positions held by the opponent party are strongly influenced by respondents’ ideologies, and (ii) this influence is more pronounced among individuals with stronger ideological convictions, as indicated by the three aforementioned indicators. Conversely, when examining perceptions of one’s favored party, ideology demonstrates a weak and inconsistent effect across the three markers of ideological strength. We discuss theoretical frameworks that may elucidate these findings, their implications for understanding political polarization, and we acknowledge limitations related to the dataset’s characteristics.