Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effect Of Partisan Representation At Different Levels Of Government On Satisfaction With Democracy In The United States, Julie Vandusky-Allen, Stephen M. Utych

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we analyze how variations in partisan representation across different levels of government influence Americans’ satisfaction with the democracy in the United States. We conduct two survey experiments and analyze data from the 2016 American National Election Study postelection survey. We find that Americans are the most satisfied with democracy when their most preferred party controls both the federal and their respective state governments. However, we also find that even if an individual’s least preferred party only controls one level of government, they are still more satisfied with democracy than if their most preferred party controls no levels …