In view of the forthcoming Call for Applications,

the Network for the Advancement of Social and Political Studies - NASP

is pleased to invite you to the

Annual lecture & Presentation
of the PhD Programme in Political Studies (POLS)
2026/2027

17 April 2026 
h 10:30 - 12:30 (CEST - Milan time) 
Room A - NASP Graduate School
Via Pace, 10 - Milan
and on Zoom
ID: 834 2802 6794

Programme

10:30  Welcome and Presentation of the Doctoral programme
           Fabio Franchino - Programme Director, University of Milan

10:45  Annual Lecture

           Nationalization and Polarization of U.S. Politics
           James Snyder, Jr - Harvard University

Abstract

State and local governments are responsible for much domestic policymaking in the U.S. federal system. Many journalists, politicians, and researchers argue that electoral politics in the U.S. has become increasingly nationalized and polarized at all levels. This trend is potentially harmful because, as Fiorello LaGuardia famously put it, ''there is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets.'' Nationalized and polarized politics can lead to poorer electoral selection and less electoral accountability; partisan fighting that reduces compromise and problem-solving by politicians; and governments that waste time on second-order issues instead of key problems. We analyze data from thousands of state and local elections, at the individual level (for 2020) and precinct level (from 2000 to 2004), to assess the degree to which these elections actually suffer from nationalization and partisanship. We find: (i) when party labels are on the ballot, voting is highly partisan even in state and local contests, consistent with polarization; (ii) when party labels are not on the ballot, voting is seldom partisan; (iii) there is some evidence of increased nationalization in non-partisan contests at the state level; but (iv) there does not seem to have been much change at the local level. Electorally at least, local politics is still rather local.