Value Disagreement and Partisan Sorting in the American Mass Public

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211072558
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2023, Vol. 76(1) 60–74

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129211072558

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Value Disagreement and Partisan Sorting

in the American Mass Public

David J. Ciuk

1



Abstract

Decades ago, research described American political culture in terms of consensus. Contemporary research, however,

reaches opposite conclusions, arguing that the “culture war”that now def‌ines American politics stems from value

disagreements among partisan and ideological groups. What factors are at work in this transition from consensus to

dissensus? This manuscript pulls from two literatures—one on American core political values and another on partisan-

ideological sorting and affective polarization—and argues that the term dissensus best describes value preferences among

individuals whose partisan and ideological identities are aligned. Among others, however, preferences on core political

values are largely in consensus. First, using data from 2006 and 2019 and f‌itting geometric models of value preferences, I

show that strong value disagreements exist primarily among sorted partisans. Next, I explore possible implications of

such alignments and f‌ind that relationships among value preferences, political attitudes, and political behaviors are

signif‌icantly stronger in sorted partisans. I close with a discussion of how theories undergirding affective polarization and

partisan-ideological sorting can help the discipline better understand value conf‌lict in the American mass public.

Keywords

values, partisanship, ideology, partisan-ideological sorting

Introduction

Psychological theory def‌ines values as one’s abstract

conceptions of desirable and undesirable end-states of

human life that guide behavior and choice (Rokeach 1973;

Schwartz 1992). Theory also states that values do not act

in isolation—rather, they work in a comparative and

competitive fashion such that it is the relative order of

relevant values that guides human behavior (Schwartz

1994).

1

In essence, political values give shape and

structure to individuals’belief systems, and they def‌ine

the boundaries of “legitimate”and “illegitimate”opinions

in society and culture (Wildavsky 1987).

Empirical research at the individual level shows that

peoples’value preferences correspond to various attitudes

related to policy (Feldman 1988), social groups (Sagiv

and Schwartz 1995), political action (Borg 1995), as well

as politicians and parties (Knutsen 1995). At the societal

level, values give shape to culture (Abramson and

Inglehart 1995), and more specif‌ically, to political cul-

ture (Halman 2007). It is important to note, however, that

core political values are the main focus of this manuscript,

which are a small subset of what psychologists and po-

litical scientists refer to as basic human values (Goren,

Smith and Motta 2020). In short, the inf‌luence of core

political values is thought to be limited to the political

sphere (Feldman 1988;Hurwitz and Peff‌ley 1987)

whereas basic human values operate in all domains of

daily life (e.g., Gardikoitis and Baltzis 2012;Sagiv 2002).

While it may be the case that basic human values give

shape to core political values (Schwartz et al. 2014) and

have a greater impact on political judgments than core

political values (Schwartz, Caprara and Vecchione 2010),

core political values “serve as focal points”to help in-

dividuals understand “an otherwise confusing political

environment”(Schwartz, Caprara and Vecchione 2010,p.

423). At the societal level, it is argued that core political

values are the foundation upon which political culture is

built (see Jacoby 2014, p. 755). With this being the case,

developing a better understanding of core political values

may help us better understand changes in American po-

litical culture.

1

Department of Government, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster,

PA, USA

Corresponding Author:

David J. Ciuk, Department of Government, Franklin & Marshall College,

P.O. Box 3003, Lancaster, PA, USA.

Email: dciuk@fandm.edu