On the Representativeness of Primary Electorates

John Sides, Chris Tausanovitch, Lynn Vavreck and Christopher Warshaw

British Journal of Political Science, 2020, vol. 50, issue 2, 677-685

Abstract: Primary voters are frequently characterized as an ideologically extreme subset of their party, and thus partially responsible for party polarization in government. This study uses a combination of administrative records on primary turnout and five recent surveys from 2008–14 to show that primary voters have similar demographic attributes and policy attitudes as rank-and-file voters in their party. These similarities do not vary according to the openness of the primary. These results suggest that the composition of primary electorates does not exert a polarizing effect above what might arise from voters in the party as a whole.

Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:50:y:2020:i:2:p:677-685_13

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