A Receding Water’s Edge: The Impact of Affective Polarization on International Issue Salience

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/0c483k964

Abstract

Though issue salience research in political science is extensive, less is known about international issue salience and the factors that make international problems more or less important to the American public. I propose affective polarization as a possible explanation and a synthesizing framework for existing schools of thought. Utilizing survey data from the American National Election Studies (ANES), I examine the relationship between affective polarization and international issue salience from 1960 to 2020 at individual and aggregate levels. I find that heightened levels of affective polarization coincide with a decline in international issue salience for both parties in the post-1980 period, though the effect is more pronounced for Republicans. This suggests that affective polarization’s upward trend may increase inward-focused political discourse, overshadowing global concerns. The research also distinguishes between the concepts of affective polarization and partisanship, highlighting inter-party differences.

Creator