What term describes the tendency to support one political party over the other, sometimes without understanding positions?

• A. Ideology
• B. Bipartisanship
• C. Partisanship
• D. Civic literacy

Answer: (C)

Partisanship is the loyalty to a political party that leads people to support that party's candidates and positions, often without fully examining the specifics of each issue. This mindset shapes how issues are viewed through a party lens, making party identity feel more important than the details of each policy. It’s different from ideology, which is a broader, coherent set of beliefs about how government should be run, and from civic literacy, which is knowledge about how government works. It’s also not about cooperation between parties; that collaboration is called bipartisanship. A typical example is voting for a party’s candidate mainly because of party loyalty or identity, even if you haven’t looked closely at the candidate’s stance on the policies involved.