How do independent voters impact American politics?

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Yanna Krupnikov joins Julia, Lee, and James to discuss independent voters and the impact they have on American politics. Krupnikov is Professor of Political Science at Stony Brook University. Her research and teaching focuses on political psychology, political communication, political persuasion, political behavior, and empirical methodology. She is the co-author (with Samara Klar) of Independent Politics: How American Disdain for Parties Has Led to Political Inaction (Cambridge University press, 2016).

What causes Americans to identify as political independents? What impact do they have on politics? And what does their rising number in recent years reveal about American politics more broadly? These are some of the questions that Yanna, Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this week’s episode.

This episode is also available on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher.

Show Notes

“Party Affiliation: Trends Since 2004,” Gallup.

Bruce Keith, David B. Magleby, Candice J. Nelson, Elizabeth A. Orr, Mark C. Westlye, and Raymond E. Wolfinger, The Myth of the Independent Voter (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992).

James N. Druckman and Matthew S. Levendusky, “What Do We Measure When We Measure Affective Polarization?” Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 83, no. 1 (Spring 2019): 114-122.

Matthew S. Levendusky, “Does Media Coverage of Partisan Polarization Affect Political Attitudes?” Political Communication Vol. 33, no. 2 (2016): 283-301.

Jeremy Padgett, Johanna L. Dunaway, and Joshua P. Darr, “As Seen on TV? How Gatekeeping Makes the U.S. House Seem More Extreme,” Journal of Communication Vol. 69, no. 6 (December 2019): 696-719.

Shannon C. McGregor, “Social Media as public opinion: How journalists use social media to represent public opinion,” Journalism Vol. 20, no. 8 (2019): 1070-1086.

Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird, Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior (Princeton University Press, 2020).

Publius [James Madison], “Federalist 10: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection,” New York Packet (November 1787).

Steven J. Rosenstone and John Mark Hansen, Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America (New York: Macmillan Pub. Co., 1993).

Knight Foundation, How Media Habits Relate to Voter Participation (September 8, 2020).

James Druckman, Samara Klar, Yanna Krupnikov, Matthew Levendusky, John Barry Ryan, “(Mis-)Estimating Affective Polarization,” Northwestern Institute for Policy Research Working Paper Series (November,16, 2020).

Yanna Krupnikov and John Barry Ryan, “The Real Divide in America Is Between Political Junkies and Everyone Else,” New York Times (October 20, 2020).