A primary cause of partisanship? nomination systems and legislator ideology

• Autores: Eric McGhee, Seth Masket, Boris Shor, Steven Rogers, Nolan McCarty
• Localización: American Journal of Political Science, ISSN-e 1540-5907, Vol. 58, Nº. 2, 2014, págs. 337-351
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Many theoretical and empirical accounts of representation argue that primary elections are a polarizing influence. Likewise, many reformers advocate opening party nominations to nonmembers as a way of increasing the number of moderate elected officials. Data and measurement constraints, however, have limited the range of empirical tests of this argument. We marry a unique new data set of state legislator ideal points to a detailed accounting of primary systems in the United States to gauge the effect of primary systems on polarization. We find that the openness of a primary election has little, if any, effect on the extremism of the politicians it produces.