Putting the Political in Political Interest: The Conditional Effect of Politics on Citizens’ Interest in Politics

Given that political interest is one of the best predictors of political participation, it remains curious that the causes of interest are undertheorized and understudied. Notably absent from much of the research on political interest is an exploration of how variations in the nature of politics its...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American politics research 2023-07, Vol.51 (4), p.510-524
Main Authors: Miller, Joanne M., Peterson, David A. M., Saunders, Kyle L., McClurg, Scott D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Elections
Individual differences
Legislatures
Midterm elections
Partisanship
Polarization
Political elites
Political participation
Politics
Presidents
Prospects
Voters
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Summary:Given that political interest is one of the best predictors of political participation, it remains curious that the causes of interest are undertheorized and understudied. Notably absent from much of the research on political interest is an exploration of how variations in the nature of politics itself might have an impact on individual-level political interest. We develop a theory and a set of testable predictions about how partisanship interacts with the presence of a presidential (vs. midterm) election, the party of the sitting president, and elite polarization, to affect political interest. We report multilevel models that use ANES measures of political interest and partisanship and the DW-NOMINATE Senate polarization measure (from 1960 to 2008) and discuss the implications of our findings for the long-term prospects of an interested electorate.
ISSN:1532-673X
1552-3373
DOI:10.1177/1532673X221139757