ABSTRACT
While party identification is less dramatic than the high-pitched racial politics of the 1960s American South, Bowler et al. (1994) make a similar argument about opposing party dominance as a threat that drives partisan loyalty. They propose that the presence of a very ideological opposition party may force minority party adherents to identify with their party more strongly. A fourth approach expands upon the view that minority partisans may not get swept up with the surrounding partisan mood, and provides a mechanism of how minority partisans retain their party identification under stress. Lodge and Taber (2000) explain how reasoning is motivated by previously held affective attitudes. Rather than integrating political information on a clean slate, one’s previous affectively charged attitudes come to mind the moment the individual considers new information. The processing of the information is biased by the previously held attitude. With so much information passing through discussion networks, networks provide an excellent vehicle for biased information provision. By selectively exposing themselves to disagreement and censoring political communication, these networks may serve as a cushion for partisans against an inhospitable partisan environment (Huckfeldt et al. 1998: 998; Mutz and Martin 2001). As Finifter (1974) illustrated, this may particularly be the case among minority partisans in hostile environments. These four approaches leave many questions to be answered concerning both how influential one’s local partisan climate is on their individual attitudes and behavior, and in turn, how individuals seek strategies to counter or accentuate this partisan climate. First, is individual-level party identification mediated by one’s surroundings? Second, if the individual’s behavior is mediated by surroundings, how does the mediation work? Do an individual’s attitudes become similar to the surrounding partisan environment or more resistant to this perceived threat? Third, how much is the individual an active agent affecting their exposure to surroundings versus a passive recipient of environmental influences? The patterns of political discussion may provide an important guard against opposing political views. To test these propositions, data from the 1990 German study and the 1992 American studies of the Comparative National Election Project are used.
