Federalism, Polarization, and Policy Responsibility during COVID-19: Experimental and Observational Evidence from the United States

Abstract

This article considers the ways in which partisanship structured public attitudes about the United States’ multiple governments as each tried to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 during the spring and summer of 2020. The evidence shows that Democrats and Republicans both made distinctions among their local, state, and federal governments, assigning them different functional responsibilities. Yet, members of the two parties did not agree on that division of intergovernmental responsibility. Rather, across a variety of issues, polarized partisan identities structured beliefs about the operation and efficacy of the American federal system’s ability to contend with the spread of coronavirus. Moreover, these beliefs did not stem from prior ideological commitments or the different composition of Democratic or Republican communities. Instead, party leaders proved especially capable of shifting public attitudes on questions of federal versus state authority through their shifting rhetoric and strategic framing.