Do Explorit Exercises
3,4,5 for today

Ideology in America

At the beginning of class today, we will explore what various public opinion polls have discovered about elite and mass attitudes in the US. Data from a number of opinion polls are used. The tables you will see come from a book entitled The American Ethos: Public Attitudes Toward Capitalism and Democracy by McCloskey and Zaller. The book argues: "(i)t is clear that capitalist and democratic values have strongly influenced the course and character of American development, and that they continue to serve as the authoritative values of the nation's political culture".

How does this statement "fit in" with ideas espoused by Monsma? Schuman?


 They go on to state: "(t)he tension that exists between capitalist and democratic values is a definitive feature of American life that has helped to shape the ideological divisions of the nation's politics". Yet there is a great deal in common between these two ideas. Louis Hartz argued, for example, that capitalism and democracy combined to form a "liberal tradition" that is fundamental to American history and experience. Clinton Rossiter describes this liberal tradition as an American Holy Writ whose articles of faith are: perfectability, progress, liberty, equality, democracy and individualism. Historian Richard Hofstadter argued that "...the major political traditions have shared a belief in the rights of property, the philosophy of economic individualism, the values of competition; they have accepted the economic virtues of capitalist culture as necessary qualities of man".

Sound like what Schuman says the Founding Fathers wanted us to think?


Interestingly, most also argue that the values of capitalism and democracy, by their natures, creat conflict as well. McCloskey and Zaller state: "Capitalism is primarily concerned with maximizing private profit, while democracy aims at maximizing freedom, equality and the public good. From this difference, others follow. Capitalism tends to value each individual according to the scarcity of his talents and his contribution to production; democracy attributes unique but roughly equivalent value to all people. Capitalism stresses the need for a reward system that encourages the most talented and industrious individuals to earn and amass as much wealth as possible; democracy tries to ensure that all people, even those who lack outstanding talents and initiative, can at least gain a decent livelihood. Capitalism holds that the free market is not only the most efficient but also the fairest mechanism for distributing goods and services; democracy upholds the rights of popular majorities to override market mechanisms when necessary to alleviate social and economic distress. These differences are not easily reconciled".

We'll look at this clash of values and the differences between elites and mass.


Besides studying responses to specific questions on public opinion polls which may also measure concepts such as sense of civic duty or political efficacy, political scientists also like to explore the interrelated sets of values, beliefs, attitudes and opinions which form political ideologies.  There can be a problem however.  It is the differences between how people may categorize themselves and how they might be categorized if "objective" measures of political ideology were applied to a set of questions.  This problem becomes even more pronounced in a society where there people are generally not inclined to "think politically" and/or have no frames of reference for the subtle distinctions which are part of the notion of political ideology throughout the rest of the world.  For example, we tend to talk about conservatives, moderates, or liberals.  Can most Americans make the distinction, for example, between a liberal and a neo-liberal?  between a Marxist and a democratic socialist?  The answer is generally no.  As a result ideological terms can have little meaning. Let's try to explore this issue in more detail.

First,  let's see how people self-identify themselves!


Distribution of Ideological Identification: 1972-1996
from
Political Behavior and the American Electorate, Flanigan and Zingale
 
1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996
Liberal 9 13 8 10 8 7 9 11 9 8 10 8 9
Somewhat
Liberal		 10 8 8 10 9 8 9 11 9 8 10 8 11
Middle-of-
the-Road		 27 26 25 27 20 22 23 28 22 25 23 27 24
Somewhat
Conservative		 15 12 12 14 14 13 14 15 15 14 15 14 16
Conservative 12 14 13 14 15 14 15 15 17 12 15 21 19
Haven't Thought
About It		 28 27 33 27 36 36 30 25 30 33 27 22 21

What can you surmise about changes in ideological self-identification over time?

Are there historical factors which you can identify which might explain any changes which have occurred in these patterns?
 
 

An assumption is always made that the political parties have an ideological base.  Let's explore that:

Ideological Self-Identification and Party Identification: 1996
 
Democrats Independents Republicans
Liberal 16 7 2 25
Middle-of-the Road 12 13 6 31
Conservative 8 12 25 45
36 32 33 101

What does this table suggest about the competitiveness of political parties in the US? Their electoral strategies?  
 

How strongly held are these ideological beliefs?
 

A study examined individual  responses to a range of questions and discovered the following:
 

Levels of Conceptualization: 1956-1988
 
Levels of
Conceptualization		 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988
Ideologues 12 19 27 26 22 21 21 19 18
Group Benefits 42 31 27 24 27 26 31 26 36
Nature of
the Times		 24 26 20 29 34 30 30 35 25
No issue content 22 23 26 21 17 24 19 19 21
Ideologues: discussed candidates and issues in ideological terms
Group Benefits: could discuss candidates only in group terms, ie., "Democrats are for the working man or "Republicans are good for business"
Nature of the Times: evaluations based solely on the specifics of the moment

What does this table say about the "state of ideology" in America?



Workspace Analysis
In your party workspace, do the following (being sure to identify your contributions):


Explore the discussion of social cleavages in the Ruritania webpage.

Which cleavages do you think operate in Ruritania?

Which are of importance to your party?