The Correlates and Characteristics of American State Identity

Abstract The Federalist Papers highlight the role that citizens’ state identities will play in American federalism, yet some scholars argue that contemporary Americans have shed their state attachments. Drawing on data from a nationally representative survey, we demonstrate that individuals still hold dual national and state identities, and that the likelihood that one will feel attached to their state depends on a variety of individual characteristics such as education, identification with a marginalized or minority community within the state, and one’s ideological “fit” with the partisan majority in their state, leading to significant variance from one citizen to the next. Additionally, we find that this state identity is correlated with political attitudes, particularly trust in and assessment of state elected officials. Individuals who hold stronger state identities are also more likely to trust their state government. These findings have implications for our understanding of the dynamics of federalism in modern U.S. politics.