Vote Choice and the Preference for Divided Government: Lessons of 1992

Abstract

Theory: Cognitive Madisonianism -the preference for divided rather than unified partisan control of the executive and legislative branches-is often held accountable for the voter's decision to engage in ticket-splitting and ultimately for the existence of divided government. Hypotheses: Vote choice in 1992, and ticket-splitting in particular, were significantly related to the preference for divided or unified government. Methods: Simple tabular analysis and a multinomial logit are conducted on data from the 1992 American National Election Study. Results: In 1992, the preference for divided or unified government appears to have had little or no bearing on vote choice and ticket-splitting. Concluding discussion and analyses suggest that this may be because this preference is a non-attitude in Converse's sense.