Search

Although divided government has become something close to the norm in American politics, some scholars believe that this is more an unintended consequence of changes in the campaign environment than a conscious decision by a large number of voters. In fact, while polls seem to indicate widespread popular support for divided government, it has been suggested that the results of these polls represent an expression of non-attitudes for many citizens. Our study examines attitudes toward divided vs. unified government as a dependent variable. Using data from two national surveys, and measures of both separable and nonseparable preferences regarding partisan control of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, we seek to determine whether those preferences are meaningful or whether they are distributed throughout the population in a more or less random fashion. Our results, which are preliminary, provide some interesting insights but no definitive answers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]