Replication Data for: \"Disaffected Partisans: Most Americans Think a Third Party is Needed, But Those Americans Are Even More Polarized\"

Deepening partisan polarization has caused extreme discontent with the existing two-party system. But despite bipartisan concerns about third party vote splitting, there has been little attempt to measure the policy preferences of current Republicans and Democrats who want a third party alternative to the two dominant parties. From April 19 to May 1, 2022, we surveyed 1,862 American adults to determine if these “disaffected partisans” are more or less polarized. First, we confirm previous findings that most Americans — Republicans and Democrats alike — now say a third party is needed. For 14 different issues, we then compare the policy preferences of partisans who think a third party is needed and those who do not. Contrary to the popular narrative that disaffected partisans might converge around a centrist or moderate third party, we find that disaffected partisans are just as polarized or more on most issues.日益加剧的党派极化（partisan polarization）已引发民众对现有两党制的强烈不满。尽管两党均担忧第三方政党会引发得票分流问题，但目前几乎尚未有研究针对希望以第三方政党替代两大主流政党的现任共和党人与民主党人的政策偏好展开量化评估。2022年4月19日至5月1日期间，我们对1862名美国成年人开展了调查，以探明这些不满型党派人士（disaffected partisans）的极化程度高低。首先，我们验证了此前的研究结论：如今绝大多数美国民众——无论共和党人还是民主党人——均认为有必要组建第三方政党。随后，我们针对14项不同议题，对比了支持组建第三方政党的党派人士与持反对态度的党派人士的政策偏好。与"不满型党派人士可能会围绕中间温和的第三方政党达成立场共识、消解极化分歧"的主流叙事相悖，我们发现，在多数议题上，不满型党派人士的极化程度非但未得到缓解，反而与主流群体持平甚至更高。