Political Behavior
How do we:
formulate our political ideas?
Interact with government and political structures?
Obtain the information we need to pursue our policy objectives?
You are NOT neutral
You have political values
You have a political impact
Facts
American’s political knowledge is low
Percent of Americans who
24% cannot name their governor
26% cannot name the vice-president
31% cannot name the chief justice
32% do not know president is limited to 2 terms
48% do not know each state has 2 senators
71% cannot name their representative in the U.S. House
Political Mythologies
Common American Myths
all politicians are corrupt
They do not keep their promises
Don’t listen to the people, nor do our votes count
Definition of a myth
Political Issues
Issues of fact and value combine to produce issues of policy
We all have different experiences and backgrounds leading to differences over policy
Complaint that government leaders should stop arguing and simply do the right thing assumes there is one clearly correct option.
All of us would like a strong economy, but
(Issue of fact) is economic growth best achieved by
(a) trickle down policies, OR
(b) percolate up policies?
AND (Issue of value) which is more important
(a) overall national economic growth regardless of who benefits, OR
(b) ensuring some fairness in economic distribution – e.g. huge CEO salaries versus those of all other employees?
The Calculus of Voting
(or participation)
Participation = Individual Benefits – Individual Costs: P = B - C
What benefits do we perceive if one candidate / party / policy is successful versus the alternatives
Costs:
Information on candidates / parties / policies
Time and effort to vote or otherwise participate
One goal of this course is to help reduce the costs via shortcuts we can use
The primary determinants of public opinion are the values held by citizens
Plus
Accumulated general knowledge and beliefs
Political Socialization
The process through which individuals acquire their political beliefs and values
Primary: childhood-youth socialization
Most important and long lasting
Secondary: Our adult life experiences
Agents of socialization
Family – both values and income
Schools
Elementary & secondary
College or university
Religion
Gender
Community
Race / ethnicity
Age and Life Cycle
Family
About 60% of Americans share the same political views as parents.
If never discussed politics at home, not likely to be interested
If parents are Republicans (or Democrats) most likely children will be the same.
Education
Elementary and Secondary
College
Party Identification
Political Values
School
One major task of elementary and secondary education is to instill patriotism or “good citizenship”
INCOME
Strong relationship to party policies
Party Identification by Income
Religion
Christian vs. non-Christian
Denominational variations within Christianity
US vs. other countries
Religion and Party ID
GENDER
Gender “Gap” in:
Policy preferences
Party Identification
Region / Community
Where did you grow up
What were the values / beliefs of your
Friends
School board
Church family and pastors
Region: Red, Blue, and Purple States, where did you grow up?
Race Ethnicity
Blacks and Hispanics tend to both be
Liberal on economic issues
Conservative on social issues
Changing Ethnicity of America:
Will Texas Become Blue?
Age
Age as Generational
The era in which you were born and raised
Age as Life-Cycle
how old a person is now
Generational:
Was there a dominant political event during a generation’s youth socialization era?
Great Depression
1960s Generation: Vietnam
Your Generation
Age – Life Cycle
As we proceed through life, different things become important
Teens-20s: education, job, spouse
20s-40s: family, home community, school quality for kids, career
50s-60s: investments, retirement planning
60s+ retirement income, travel, etc.
Adult Socialization
Job / Profession / Community / Clubs
Blinders
Personal benefits
Leader & party cues on policies
Mass media
Reinforcing and Crosscutting Cleavages
Do your experiences all push you in the same way?
E.g., conservative community, parents, church?
Or in different directions
Conservative parents, but liberal community?
Adulthood
Moving from an environment dominantly one way to one dominant the other
Or staying in the same political environment?
Reinforcing cleavages push you to extremes
Crosscutting cleavages move you to middle