Political preferences Flashcards
What is Karl Marx’s theory on policy preferences?
Individual’s political interests are determined by their relationship to economic production e.g. proletariate, bourgeoise
What is Max Weber’s theory on policy preferences?
Individuals’ political interests are determined by their relationship to economic consumption.
Wealth & power are key factors
What is Seymour Lipset and Stein Rokkan’s (1967) theory on policy preferences?
Reflects historical divides.
National revolutions created geographic and religious divisions (e.g. Christian democratic parties- Germany). Economic revolutions created divisions between owners and workers (e.g. labour parties).
Hypothesis: Political preferences are largely static and determined by one’s identity and the structure of foundational political conflicts.
Explain Ronald Inglehart’s (1977) hypothesis on political preferences
Believes in Post-materialism
Materialism: focus on economic & physical security
Post-materialism: focus on personal autonomy, self-expression,
intellectual satisfaction, eg, civil liberties, equal rights, environmentalism, anti-war
Hypothesis: economic wealth plus mass university education leading to a shift from materialist to post-materialist values from
one generation to the next
Overtime is not a change in classes/partisanship but ideology. As wealth has increased there is a rise in post-materialism. As economic wealth
increases there should be a shift from materialism to post-materialism
Role of religion and ethnicity in political preferences
India ethnicity- caste strongly predictive of how people vote
Countries with the most ethnic
based voting also has lots of
inequality between identity
groups economically
Interaction between econ and identity- when identity is further divided it is when it becomes salient
Explain Cass Sunstein (2017) theory on how media and social media influence political preferences
The rising availability of partisan media and social sorting creates an “echo chamber” which prevents individuals from observing cross-cutting viewpoints.
Hypothesis: (a) Access to diverse media causes voters to consume more partisan media. (b) Consumption of partisan media drives polarization.
Examine the impact of media on polarization- Brookman and Kalla 2022
Paid Fox news listeners to watch CNN for multiple weeks and see what it does to their political preferences.
Found:
Media does drive partisanship to some extent
Doesn’t change voting opinions - short-term effects, revert to typical partisan preferences so it matters but to a lesser extent
Examine the impact of social media on polarization- Nyhan et al 2023
Question- Does social media reinforce our views or open us to new views? Or is social media reducing?
The effects of reducing Facebook Feed exposure to like-minded sources- found very little change in attitudes after changing social media. Yes it is an echo chamber
but it reflects polarization- not
create it
Define left-right 19th-century Europe in comaprison to 20th century
19th-century Europe
Left: individual freedom, religious tolerance, democracy
Right: state and religious authority, protect landed property
20th-century Europe
Left: workers’ rights, wealth redistribution, higher taxes
Right: economic freedom, free markets, lower taxes
2 dimensions political scientists think in about left and right
1) Intervention-free market (an “economic left-right”) How far should the state (or the political majority) interfere in individual economic freedoms? Eg. taxation, market regulation, free trade, etc
2) Liberty-authority (a “social left-right”)
How far should the state (or the political majority) interfere in individual social freedoms? Eg.gender equality, gay rights, immigration, etc
The meaning of an “integrated” left-right dimension depends on how these two underlying dimensions relate to each other in a particular country, in a particular period.
Explain Russell Dalton’s research on left-right politics
Methedology- “In political matters, people talk of ‘the Left’ and ‘the Right.’ How would you place your views on this scale (1-10), generally speaking?
Research question:
What other political preferences correlate with people’s left-right positions across different regions of the world?
Findings- Correlation between people’s self-placement and different issues we think of being associated with each side. Western Europe is aligns-strong alliance with right and god. Eastern Europe is predicitive. Latin America/Africa/Middle East different story- gender more important left-
right spectrum, environment salient, national pride important Asian democracies. Mean very different things across regions
What is Lawrence LeDuc (2002) theory?
READING
- Shift away from stable party systems in Western democracies due to an increased fluidity in voter behaviour
- Highlights the erosion of traditional social cleavages with the decline in influence of social class and religious alignments on electoral choice which weakens long-term partisan commitments and party identification among voters
- Also a rise of short-term factors in electoral politics as issues and candidate images become more important in shaping electoral choice
Erosion of traditional social cleavages which result in
voters to be mobilised based on candidate images or issue appeals rather than social identities or party affiliations
What is Tom O’Grady’s (2019) theory?
READING
- only large changes in economic circumstances provide the information and motivation needed for people to change their preferences
- Found that when the young experience positive or negative labour market experiences they are much more likley than the old to change their preferences
