Did our beliefs get more partisan? Alignment of beliefs and identity among European partisans

Partisan sorting is deepening ideological disagreement in many societies worldwide by distributing beliefs exclusively along the party lines. In this study, I focus on the product of sorting, partisan issue alignment. In the cross-sectional analysis, I assess the party system and party-related explanations through multi-level models and belief network system comparisons. Using the eighth wave of the European Social Survey, I show that radical right and new left party supporters are those most aligned with their party ideology. However, the effect is lesser for the radical right partisans due to the lower belief constraint and different organization of beliefs. In contrast with previous reliance on party polarization, I found no effect of party system characteristics. Finally, I present evidence that three aspects of party ideological positions (extremity, lack of blurring and nicheness) contribute to higher alignment. However, results indicate heterogeneity depending on the issues at stake.