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The South, the suburbs, and the Vatican too: explaining partisan change among Catholics

Ryan, John Barry; Milazzo, Caitlin

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Authors

John Barry Ryan



Abstract

This paper explains changes in partisanship among Catholics in the last quarter of the 20th Century using a theory of partisan change centered on the contexts in which Catholics lived. Catholics were part of the post-New Deal Democratic coalition, but they have become a swing demographic group. We argue that these changes in partisanship are best explained by changes in elite messages that are filtered through an individual’s social network. Those Catholics who lived or moved into the increasingly Republican suburbs and South were the Catholics who were most likely to adopt a non-Democratic partisan identity. Changes in context better explain Catholic partisanship than party abortion policy post Roe v. Wade or ideological sorting. We demonstrate evidence in support of our argument using the ANES cumulative file from 1972 through 2000.

Citation

Ryan, J. B., & Milazzo, C. (2015). The South, the suburbs, and the Vatican too: explaining partisan change among Catholics. Political Behavior, 37(2), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-014-9276-2

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 1, 2014
Online Publication Date May 29, 2014
Publication Date Jun 1, 2015
Deposit Date Jul 1, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Political Behavior
Print ISSN 0190-9320
Electronic ISSN 1573-6687
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 37
Issue 2
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-014-9276-2
Keywords Partisanship, Catholics, social networks
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/750638
Publisher URL http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11109-014-9276-2
Additional Information The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11109-014-9276-2

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