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Partisan Polarization and Blame Attribution in a Federal System: The Case of Hurricane Katrina

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  • Neil Malhotra

Abstract

When multiple government authorities at overlapping levels of administration fail to do their jobs properly, whom do citizens hold responsible? People can potentially make more accurate judgments by taking into account the roles and responsibilities of the officials involved. However, if party identification plays a major role in shaping Americans' attitudes on federalism, such information may potentially lead to even greater partisan polarization. This article explores these questions using a controlled experiment in which citizens were provided job titles of government officials involved in the poor response to Hurricane Katrina. Both Republican and Democratic citizens update their blame attributions in the same direction in response to new information. Despite polarized general attitudes on federalism, partisans do not polarize further when using specific information. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.

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  • Neil Malhotra, 2008. "Partisan Polarization and Blame Attribution in a Federal System: The Case of Hurricane Katrina," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 38(4), pages 651-670, Fall.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:publus:v:38:y:2008:i:4:p:651-670
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/publius/pjn018
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    Cited by:

    1. Amy B. Becker, 2020. "Polarization and American Jews: The Partisan Debate Over Attribution of Blame and Responsibility for Rising Anti‐Semitism in the United States," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1572-1583, July.
    2. Baker, C. Richard, 2014. "Breakdowns of accountability in the face of natural disasters: The case of Hurricane Katrina," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(7), pages 620-632.
    3. Klomp, Jeroen, 2019. "Does government ideology shake or shape the public finances? Empirical evidence of disaster assistance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 118-127.
    4. Dodlova, Marina & Zudenkova, Galina, 2021. "Incumbents’ performance and political extremism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    5. Mark D. Ramirez, 2021. "Understanding public blame attributions when private contractors are responsible for civilian casualties," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(1), pages 21-40, March.

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