Unemployment and Political Partisanship: Support for the Null Hypothesis

This paper contains an analysis of political partisanship in a sample of persons receiving unemployment compensation during the most pronounced recession in this country since the Depression. Partisanship is defined to include both ideological beliefs and support for a political party. No relationships are found between characteristics of unemployment episodes and political partisanship. Predictors of political partisanship drawn from studies of employed persons are suggested for future research among those unemployed who collect unemployment compensation.