Partisan sorting: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Political effect where voters sort themselves into parties that match their ideology}}

'''Partisan sorting''' is an effect in politics in which voters sort themselves into parties that match their ideology.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Mason|first=Lilliana|date=2015|title="I Disrespectfully Agree": The Differential Effects of Partisan Sorting on Social and Issue Polarization|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24363600|journal=American Journal of Political Science|volume=59|issue=1|pages=128–145|doi=10.1111/ajps.12089 |jstor=24363600 |issn=0092-5853|doi-access=free}}</ref> Partisan sorting is distinct from [[political polarization]], which is where [[Partisan (politics)|partisans]] subscribe to increasingly extreme positions. As political scientist [[Nolan McCarty]] explains, "party sorting can account for the increased differences across partisans even if the distribution of...attitudes in the population remains unchanged or moves uniformly in one direction or the other." As an example given by McCarty, the gap between the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] and [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] on views towards immigrants strengthening the country with hard work and talents has widened from a 2-point gap in 1994 to a 42-point gap in 2017. A reasonable explanation is that of partisan sorting: those who are pro-immigrant shifted into the Democratic party and immigration-restrictions have shifted towards the Republican party. According to McCarty, this explains the widening gap between the two parties, evenconsidering thoughhow pro-immigration viewpoints between the two surveys have increased by 35% since 1994.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|last=McCarty|first=Nolan|title=What is Political Polarization?|date=2019-12-05|url=https://whateveryoneneedstoknow.com/view/10.1093/wentk/9780190867782.001.0001/isbn-9780190867782-book-part-2|work=Polarization|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/wentk/9780190867782.003.0002|isbn=978-0-19-086778-2|access-date=2022-01-26|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== Applications and forms ==

Partisan sorting is used as a potential explainer for how in recent decades the Democratic Party has become more liberal while the Republican Party has become more conservative.<ref name=":0" /> One school of thought led by [[Morris Fiorina]]<ref name=":1">{{Citation|last=McCarty|first=Nolan|title=What is Political Polarization?|date=2019-12-05|url=https://whateveryoneneedstoknow.com/view/10.1093/wentk/9780190867782.001.0001/isbn-9780190867782-book-part-2|work=Polarization|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/wentk/9780190867782.003.0002|isbn=978-0-19-086778-2|access-date=2022-01-26|url-access=subscription}}</ref> concludes most of the change comes from ideological partisan sorting, with polarization having little effect or being solely limited to the political elites.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Polarized or Sorted? Just What’s Wrong With Our Politics, Anyway?">{{cite web|last1=Abramowitz|first1=Alan|last2=Fiorina|first2=Morris|title=Polarized or Sorted? Just What's Wrong With Our Politics, Anyway?|url=http://www.the-american-interest.com/2013/03/11/polarized-or-sorted-just-whats-wrong-with-our-politics-anyway/|website=The American Interest|accessdate=10 November 2016}}</ref> Conversely, another school of thought led by [[Alan Abramowitz]]<ref name=":1">{{Citation|last=McCarty|first=Nolan|title=What is Political Polarization?|date=2019-12-05|url=https://whateveryoneneedstoknow.com/view/10.1093/wentk/9780190867782.001.0001/isbn-9780190867782-book-part-2|work=Polarization|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/wentk/9780190867782.003.0002|isbn=978-0-19-086778-2|access-date=2022-01-26|url-access=subscription}}</ref> challenges this and says sorting itself is a reflection of political polarization and that both the elites and the public have become increasingincreasingly polarized.<ref name=":0" />

A form of partisan sorting is '''geographic sorting''', which alleges that people decide to move into communities that match their party.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|lastlast1=Mummolo|firstfirst1=Jonathan|last2=Nall|first2=Clayton|date=2016-10-13|title=Why Partisans Do Not Sort: The Constraints on Political Segregation|journal=The Journal of Politics|volume=79|issue=1 |pages=45–59|doi=10.1086/687569|s2cid=9272199 |issn=0022-3816}}</ref> Research by political scientists in 2012 found that people prefer to relocate to areas with copartisans, though it was unsure if it was a central or secondary factor.<ref>{{Cite journal|lastlast1=Tam Cho|firstfirst1=Wendy K.|last2=Gimpel|first2=James G.|last3=Hui|first3=Iris S.|date=2012|title=Voter Migration and the Geographic Sorting of the American Electorate|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00045608.2012.720229|journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers|language=en|volume=103|issue=4|pages=856–870|doi=10.1080/00045608.2012.720229|s2cid=34925586 |issn=0004-5608|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Research conducted in 2016 concluded that political compatibility is not a significant factor in deciding where to live.<ref name=":2" />

==See also==