Partisan Alignment, Performance, and Citizen Approval of Political Actors

• Published date: 01 November 2019
• Author: Susan M. Miller,Daniel J. Lyons
• DOI: 10.1177/1532673X19835780
• Date: 01 November 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X19835780

American Politics Research

2019, Vol. 47(6) 1345 –1357

© The Author(s) 2019

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/1532673X19835780

journals.sagepub.com/home/apr

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X19835780

American Politics Research

2019, Vol. 47(6) 1345 –1357

© The Author(s) 2019

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/1532673X19835780

journals.sagepub.com/home/apr

Article

Partisan Alignment,

Performance, and

Citizen Approval of

Political Actors

Daniel J. Lyons1 and Susan M. Miller1

Abstract

There is substantial evidence that citizen assessments of political actors and

associated institutions are shaped by shared partisanship. However, much

of this evidence comes from citizen evaluations of political actors who are

policy generalists—officials elected with broad policy jurisdictions (e.g., chief

executives and legislators). We suggest that citizen assessments of policy

specialists—officials elected with relatively narrow policy jurisdictions (e.g.,

labor commissioners and education secretaries)—may be shaped to a lesser

degree by shared partisan leanings than evaluations of policy generalists. Using

a survey experiment, we find evidence that, among out-partisans, favorable

performance information has a greater positive effect for specialists than

generalists, highlighting one way in which shared partisanship may be less

influential for evaluations of specialists. These results may help to provide

insight into the diversity of partisanship we see across policy generalists and

specialists within the same governments and have potential implications for

accountability.

Keywords

government approval, state politics, partisanship

1University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA

Corresponding Author:

Susan M. Miller, University of South Carolina, 326 Gambrell Hall, 817 Henderson Street,

Columbia, SC 29208, USA.

Email: susan.miller@sc.edu

835780APRXXX10.1177/1532673X19835780American Politics ResearchLyons and Miller

research-article2019