principles of partisanship Flashcards
what is ideology according to kinder and kalmoe (2017)?
configurations of beliefs about how society, economics, and politics should be
what are the features of an ideology by this definition?
-cognition (as opposed to affect or behavior)
-organized structure
-shared; broad enough to be shared by a large segment of the population
-held securely and stably
what are issue publics not evidence of ideology?
-each public issue is small compared to americans as a whole (not shared broadly)
-being a member of one issue public is not always related to being a member of other issue publics (not organized together)
what evidence do kinder and kalmoe (2017) present for ideological innocence?
-people classified as ideologues and near-ideologues in 1956-2000 ANES
-12% in 1956
-25% in 1964
-steady around 20% since 1976, increase in education since 1950s
-from 1971-2012, average correlation among policy preferences was r=.16
-non-significant increase in correlations over time
-similar in the two time periods on issues present; 1956-60 and 1972-76
-“new” issues much more stable in 1972-76 (busing and abortion; not issue public issues - broader issues with much larger issue politics)
how do we measure ideological identification?
standard ANES measure of ideological identification
-7 point scale ranging from extremely liberal (1) to extremely conservative (7)
how does this measure behave like/unlike an ideology measure?
-good test-retest reliability pre and post-election
-relates to closeness to liberals and conservatives
-feeling thermometer ratings of liberals and conservatives
what are the antecedents of identifying as a liberal or conservative?
-there are conservatives than liberals
-proportion of liberals and conservatives stable 1937-2012
how does this measure behave like/unlike an identity measure?
-not a bell shaped curve - lots of strong liberals and conservatives
-most americans answer the party ID question
-slightly more democrats than republicans
what other measures is ideological identification correlated with?
similar to identification with political party (partisanship) but less common and less strong among the general public
why do kinder and kalmoe (2017) claim that moderates are not ideological? how are moderates similar to people who respond “dont know” on the ideological identification measure?
-information, education, and involvement is not different between moderates and non-identifiers
-opinion consistency, opinion stability, and use of ideological categories in discussing candidates and parties are similar
how is ideological identification similar to/different from partisanship?
-party ID has been more stable than ideological identification over time
-ideological identification is most stable among those highest in political information
-information and knowledge matter less for party ID stability
-most americans answer the ID question but do not always have an answer for ideology
-partisanship more strongly correlated with vote choice than ideological identification
-regular opportunities to act on partisanship
when cohen (2003) presented participants with a description of a welfare policy, what did they evaluate the policy based on 1) when they were not given information about party support and 2) when they were told that members of one party supported the policy?
1) evaluated policy based on their own personal beliefs
2) evaluated policy based on what the other members of their party supported, or against what the opposing party
did they think party information affected their own judgements of the policy? did they think party information would affect other people’s judgements of the policy?
-they said the details of the proposal and their own ideology influence their decision, not the position of their party
-they believed that party information affected both their own party and the opposing
instrumental partisanship
-attachment to a party’s ideology or policy preferences or positive evaluations of party’s performance in office
expressive partisanship
-party as identity - emotional attachment to party as ingroup
what are instrumental vs expressive partisans motivated to defend?
-instrumental: motivated to act on behalf of party that shares your issue preferences; focus on policy and address range of issues
-expressive: motivated to defend party’s status/position; generate anger at opposing side
did huddy, mason, and aaroe find stronger evidence of instrumental or expressive partisanship?
-stronger evidence of expressive
-campaign involvement
-emotional reactions to party status threats/reassurance
who was most likely to engage in political action?
who was most likely to get angry/enthusiastic in response to threats or reassurance?
-expressive partisans most likely to engage in political action due to stake in election, has increased voter turnout
-also most likely to get angry/enthusiastic
schema
mental structures people use to organize their knowledge about the social world around themes or subjects and that influence the information people notice, think about, and remember
how is ideology (as defined by kinder and kalmoe) an example of a schema?
ideology supplies citizens with a stable foundation for understanding and action; a schema for understanding politics
self-perception theory
infer attitudes from observing own freely chosen behaviors
naive realism
conviction that we perceive things “as they really are”, understanding how much we are interpreting or “spinning” what we see
limits of introspection
-introspection: the process by which people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives
-reasons for someone’s feelings/behavior can be hidden or unconscious from their own awareness
social identity theory
aspects of self-concept based on group memberships one shares with others
how is partisanship like a social identity?
-people are motivated to maintain their ingroup (party)’s positive status to feel good about their own identity
-partisanship is a type of ingroup - emotional intensity is related to identity strength
