When Policymakers are Asked: Why and How Polarization Varies Across States

• Published date: 01 June 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129221113777
• Author: Karen Bogenschneider,Elizabeth Day,Bret N. Bogenschneider
• Date: 01 June 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2023, Vol. 76(2) 770–783

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129221113777

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When Policymakers are Asked: Why and

How Polarization Varies Across States

Karen Bogenschneider

1

, Elizabeth Day

2

, and Bret N. Bogenschneider

3

Abstract

This study brings a fresh perspective to elite polarization by examining how policymakers and party leaders interpret

and respond to it. Polarization is examined through the language and lived experience of those most familiar with it—

policymakers themselves. Face-to-face interviews posed qualitative and quantitative questions to 212 legislators and

13 key informants from two states that varied in polarization. Most legislators describe polarization in negative

terms. Consistent with “Community Dissonance Theory,”analyses reveal differences in a legislature’s institutional

culture with policymakers in the more polarized state reporting more fraying of the social fabric and fracturing of

decision-making processes. Specif‌ically, legislators report more limited opportunities to build relationships with

colleagues across party lines and for the minority party to make meaningful contributions. Corroborating the

“Theory of Pernicious Polarization,”polarization appears to function asa relationship-based process that leaders can

use for instrumental political ends. Polarization depends on whether party leaders react to rifts in tribal, non-

compromising ways and how the minority responds. Consistent with “Conditional Party Governance”theory, party

leaders can contribute to dysfunctional polarization by encouraging homogeneity in their own party and polarity

from the opposing party. Drawing on policymakers’own words, states vary in whether elite polarization is

dysfunctional.

Keywords

polarization, state legislators, party leaders, policymaker relationships

The origins of party polarization have been traced back

to the mid-1980s when a rise in party cohesion was

observed in Congress. The “party effect”emerged as an

explanation of how elite policymakers increasingly

viewed their political preferences as more similar to

members of their own party and more dissimilar from

members of the opposing party (Fleisher and Bond

2004). This partisan divide in political values between

Democrats and Republicans continues to this day now

surpassing differences by age, education, gender, race/

ethnicity, and religion (Carlin and Love 2016;Pew

Research Center 2019). Questions remain about

whether it is this growing divide itself that perpetuates

dysfunctional polarization or whether it is the way that

policymakers and their leaders interpret and respond to

this difference (Somer and McCoy 2019). In anecdotal

accounts, policymakers attributed dysfunctional polari-

zation to a fraying of the social fabric in lawmaking

bodies (Binder and Lee 2013). Yet the relational nature

of polarization has seldom been studied in U.S. states,

even though studies f‌ind some legislatures operate as a

brake on polarization (Klein 2020;Shor and McCarty,

2011).

This paper explores the perspectives of elite policy-

makers on whether relationships and governing practices

in similar state legislatures are related to variations in

dysfunctional polarization. When the perspective of

policymakers is included in studies, it is most often

represented through bill text, the Congressional record,

1

Department of Human Development and Family Studies, School of

Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

2

Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, Cornell University,

Ithaca, NY, USA

3

Department of Accounting and Finance, Western Illinois University,

Moline, IL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Karen Bogenschneider, Department of Human Development and

Family Studies, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-

Madison, 2187 Nancy Nicholas Hall, 1300 Linden Drive, Madison, WI

53706, USA.

Email: karen.bogen@wisc.edu