Partisan Bias Among U.S. Military Service Members and Veterans

Abstract

Scholars argue that growing partisanship among U.S. military service members and veterans erodes the military’s apolitical social norms and threatens healthy civil-military relations. I investigate this question by examining how service members’ and veterans’ partisan attitudes and apolitical social norms affect their opinions about partisan political activities. In an original survey experiment, military service members and veterans were asked to judge the appropriateness of three political activities which benefitted either their preferred party, the opposing party, or an unspecified party. I find that service members and veterans judge political activities that benefit their preferred party to be more appropriate than activities that benefit the opposing party. Additionally, I find inconclusive evidence that apolitical social norms moderate this effect. These findings suggest that concerns about rising partisanship and political activism in the military may be warranted.