Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T07:18:52.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Partisan Context and Procedural Values: Attitudes Towards Presidential Secrecy Before and after the 2016 US Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2020

Daniel Berliner Open the ORCID record for Daniel Berliner [Opens in a new window]
Daniel Berliner*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and Public Policy, London School of Economics
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What shapes attitudes towards procedural rules that constrain executive power? This letter argues that procedural values are contextual: A function of who is in power. Supporters of those in power prefer fewer procedural constraints, while opposition supporters prefer greater. This study reports the results of a unique test using data from the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey. Respondents were asked, in both pre- and post-election waves, if they thought it should be ‘easier or harder for the president to keep documents secret from the public’. The panel design makes it possible to track individual changes following the shift in political context. The results show evidence of a partisan ‘flip’ in attitudes following the election, with Republicans becoming less likely – and Democrats more likely – to prefer additional constraints on presidential secrecy. However, this partisan ‘flip’ is present only among higher political knowledge respondents.

Keywords

partisan biasprocedural valuestransparencysecrecypanel surveyUnited States
Type
Letter
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 483 - 491
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahlquist, J et al. (2018) How do voters perceive changes to the rules of the game? Evidence from the 2014 Hungarian elections. Journal of Comparative Economics 46(4), 906–919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anduiza, E, Gallego, A and Munoz, J (2013) Turning a blind eye: experimental evidence of partisan bias in attitudes toward corruption. Comparative Political Studies 46(12), 1664–1692.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansolabehere, S and Schaffner, B (2017) Cooperative congressional election study, 2016: common content. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Bartels, BL and Kramon, E (2020) Does public support for judicial power depend on who is in political power? Testing a theory of partisan alignment in Africa. American Political Science Review 114(1), 144–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, L (2002) Beyond the running tally: partisan bias in political perceptions. Political Behavior 24(2), 117–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berliner, D (2014) The political origins of transparency. The Journal of Politics 76(2), 479–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berliner, D (2020) “Replication Data for: Partisan Context and Procedural Values: Attitudes Towards Presidential Secrecy Before and After the 2016 United States Election”, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/WJPSJ2, Harvard Dataverse, VI, UNF:6:nsQjxRicS+wfMORPnjr10Q== [fileUNF]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berliner, D and Erlich, A (2015) Competing for transparency: political competition and institutional reform in Mexican states. American Political Science Review 109(1), 110–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berliner, D et al. (Forthcoming) The political logic of government disclosure: evidence from information requests in Mexico. The Journal of Politics. https://doi.org/10.1086/709148Google Scholar
Binder, S (1996) The partisan basis of procedural choice: allocating parliamentary rights in the house, 1789–1990. American Political Science Review 90(1), 8–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, A et al. (1960) The American Voter. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Christenson, D and Kriner, D (2017) Constitutional qualms or politics as usual? The factors shaping public support for unilateral action. American Journal of Political Science 61(2), 335–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CNN (2016) CNN/ORC International Poll, October 25, 2016. Available from http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2016/images/10/25/rel19b.-.election.outcome.pdf.Google Scholar
Cuillier, D (2008) Access attitudes: a social learning approach to examining community engagement and support for press access to government records. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 85(3), 549–576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuillier, D and Pinkleton, B (2011) Suspicion and secrecy: political attitudes and their relationship to support for freedom of information. Communication Law and Policy 16(3), 227–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doherty, D and Wolak, J (2012) When do the ends justify the means? Evaluating procedural fairness. Political Behavior 34(2), 301–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Druckman, J, Fein, J and Leeper, T (2012) A source of bias in public opinion stability. American Political Science Review 106(2), 430–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaines, B et al. (2007) Same facts, different interpretations: Partisan motivation and opinion on Iraq. The Journal of Politics 69(4), 957–974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerber, A and Huber, G (2010) Partisanship, political control, and economic assessments. American Journal of Political Science 54(1), 153–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, J (2007) The legitimacy of the US Supreme Court in a polarized polity. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 4(3), 507–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goren, P (2005) Party identification and core political values. American Journal of Political Science 49(4), 881–896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grzymala-Busse, A (2006) The discreet charm of formal institutions: postcommunist party competition and state oversight. Comparative Political Studies 39(3), 271–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoekstra, V (2019) CCES 2016, Team Module of Arizona State University (ASU). Available from https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/YUONNU, Harvard Dataverse.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huddy, L, Mason, L and Aarøe, L (2015) Expressive partisanship: campaign involvement, political emotion, and partisan identity. American Political Science Review 109(1), 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jerit, J and Barabas, J (2012) Partisan perceptual bias and the information environment. The Journal of Politics 74(3), 672–684.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitsky, S and Ziblatt, D (2018) How Democracies Die. New York: Crown.Google Scholar
Mason, L (2016) A cross-cutting calm: how social sorting drives affective polarization. Public Opinion Quarterly 80(S1), 351–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michener, G (2015) How cabinet size and legislative control shape the strength of transparency laws. Governance 28(1), 77–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyhan, B (2017) Norms Matter. Politico Magazine. Available from https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/05/why-norms-matter-politics-trump-215535.Google Scholar
Park, HM and Smith, S (2016) Partisanship, sophistication, and public attitudes about majority rule and minority rights in Congress. Legislative Studies Quarterly 41(4), 841–871.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasquier, M and Villeneuve, J-P (2007) Organizational barriers to transparency: a typology and analysis of organizational behaviour tending to prevent or restrict access to information. International Review of Administrative Sciences 73(1), 147–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piotrowski, S and Van Ryzin, G (2007) Citizen attitudes toward transparency in local government. The American Review of Public Administration 37(3), 306–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeves, A and Rogowski, J (2015) Public opinion toward presidential power. Presidential Studies Quarterly 45(4), 742–759.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeves, A and Rogowski, J (2016) Unilateral powers, public opinion, and the presidency. The Journal of Politics 78(1), 137–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeves, A and Rogowski, J (2018) The public cost of unilateral action. American Journal of Political Science 62(2), 424–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeves, A et al. (2017) The contextual determinants of support for unilateral action. Presidential Studies Quarterly 47(3), 448–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, A (2006) Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitter, P and Karl, TL (1991) What democracy is and is not. Journal of Democracy 2(3), 75–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, S and Park, HM (2013) Americans’ attitudes about the senate filibuster. American Politics Research 41(5), 735–760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taber, C and Lodge, M (2006) Motivated skepticism in the evaluation of political beliefs. American Journal of Political Science 50(3), 755–769.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wlezien, C (1995) The public as thermostat: dynamics of preferences for spending. American Journal of Political Science 39(4), 981–1000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, JR (1992) The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Berliner supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Berliner supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 226.2 KB
Supplementary material: Link

Berliner Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/WJPSJ2
Link