Nationalized Politics

Abstract

Abstract Politics and elections in the United States have become increasingly nationalized. Voters now seem more concerned with which of the two national parties will be in power across all levels of government rather than which candidate will represent them individually. The phenomenon has reached levels unseen since the 19th century, when the strong linkage between presidential and subnational voting was a result of electoral institutions in use. With the adoption of Progressive Era reforms such as the Australian ballot and the direct primary, elections became far less nationalized throughout the first half of the 1900s, which allowed for an increased role for incumbency and more candidate-centered congressional elections. The recent resurgence of nationalization, however, is typically viewed as a function of decisions made by voters. Although we are beginning to see the effects of increased nationalization in several respects, we still do not have a firm grasp of the factors that may be contributing to nationalization in the modern era, nor do we fully understand its consequences. In seeking to shed light on this important topic, this book investigates how nationalization has influenced elections across different political eras, leveraging historical variation in nationalization by analyzing congressional elections from 1840 to 2020. By examining nearly two centuries of elections, this study exploits considerable differences in nationalization, polarization, competition, rules, candidate behavior, voter preferences, and partisan advantage via the incumbency advantage. This book is the first to study such a wide swath of elections history in such a comprehensive fashion.