Americans' satisfaction with democracy is influenced by partisan representation across government levels.
Data & Methods
Drawing from survey responses in the 2016 American National Election Study (ANES).
This research explores voter attitudes through two original survey experiments analyzing data from the 2016 ANES post-election survey.
Key Findings
- Voters are most satisfied when their preferred party controls both federal and state government.
- Even if a disliked party controls one level (federal or state), satisfaction remains higher than situations with no partisan control at any level.
- Competition across different governmental levels correlates positively with democratic approval.
Why It Matters
These findings suggest that institutional competition in multi-level governance systems can foster greater public trust and contentment with democracy.
