Does Shared Power Boost Democratic Satisfaction? Exploring Federal-State Partisan Dynamics

Partisanship Political Representation Survey Experiments United States Voter Behaviorinstitutional competitionAmerican Politics @SPPQ Dataverse

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.

Article card for article: The Effect of Partisan Representation at Different Levels of Government on Satisfaction with Democracy in the United States

The Effect of Partisan Representation at Different Levels of Government on Satisfaction with Democracy in the United States was authored by Julie VanDusky-Allen and Stephen Utych. It was published by Sage in SPPQ in 2019.