Does party identification still matter for political efficacy? A cross-national assessment, 1996–2016

Abstract

It has been argued that party membership has declined in most liberal democracies over the past several decades, and the remaining party members are even more committed to party goals and policies. If partisanship becomes more of an elite phenomenon, it might also become a very effective tool to exert political influence. We use Comparative Study of Electoral Systems data (1996–2016) to investigate the magnitude of the association over time between party identification and political efficacy. The results support our main hypotheses that party identification remains strongly associated with political efficacy throughout the observation period, and that the magnitude of this association has increased in recent years. Thus, despite attention in the literature to stagnating or declining party identification, we provide new evidence that supports expectations in the literature of continued and even increased importance of the relationship between party identification and political efficacy.