Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-01T13:24:37.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Dynamics of Ideological Identification: The Puzzle of Liberal Identification Decline

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2017

Elizabeth Coggins  and
James A. Stimson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Our focus is a puzzle: that ideological identification as “liberal” is in serious decline in the United States, but at the same time support for liberal policies and for the political party of liberalism is not. We aim to understand this divorce in “liberal” in name and “liberal” in policy by investigating how particular symbols rise and fall as associations with the ideological labels “liberal” and “conservative.” We produce three kinds of evidence to shed light on this macro-level puzzle. First, we explore the words associated with “liberal” and “conservative” over time. Then we take up a group conception by examining the changing correlations between affect toward “liberals” and affect toward other groups. Finally, we consider the changing policy correlates of identification.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 737 - 755
Copyright
© The European Political Science Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Elizabeth Coggins is an Assistant Professor of Political Science, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO 80903 (elizabeth.coggins@coloradocollege.edu). James Stimson is the Dawson Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3265 (stimson@unc.edu). The authors thank Mindy White for research assistance on this project. The project was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant 1024291. To view supplementary material for this article, please visit https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2017.38

References

Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip E., Miller, Warren E., and Stokes, Donald E.. 1960. The American Voter. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Carmines, Edward G., and Stimson, James A.. 1989. Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Carney, Dana R., Jost, John T., Gosling, Samuel D., and Potter, Jeff. 2008. ‘The Secret Lives of Liberals and Conservatives: Personality Profiles, Interaction Styles, and the Things they Leave Behind’. Political Psychology 29(6):807–840.Google Scholar
Carsey, Thomas M., and Layman, Geoffrey C.. 2006. ‘Changing sides or changing minds? Party identification and policy preferences in the American electorate’. American Journal of Political Science 50(2):464–477.Google Scholar
Coggins, K. Elizabeth. 2013. ‘The Liberal Paradox’. PhD Thesis, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.Google Scholar
Conover, Pamela Johnston, and Feldman, Stanley. 1981. ‘The Origins and Meaning of Liberal/Conservative Self-Identifications’. American Journal of Political Science 25:617–645.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1964. ‘The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics’. In David E. Apter (ed.), Ideology and Discontent, pp. 206–261. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, Christopher, and Stimson, James A.. 2012. Ideology in America. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Frank, Thomas. 2004. What’s the Matter With Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. New York City, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Huber, Gregory A., Doherty, David, Dowling, Conor M., and Ha, Shang E.. 2010. ‘Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships Across Issue Domains and Political Contexts’. American Political Science Review 104(1):111–133.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 2009. Why Americans Hate Welfare. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan, and Graham, Jesse. 2007. ‘When Morality Opposes Justice: Conservatives Have Moral Intuitions that Liberals May Not Recognize’. Social Justice Research 20(1):98–116.Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan, Graham, Jesse, and Joseph, Craig. 2009. ‘Above and Below Left-Right: Ideological Narratives and Moral Foundations’. Psychological Inquiry 20:110–119.Google Scholar
Huddy, Leonie. 2001. ‘From Social to Political Identity: A Critical Examination of Social Identity Theory’. Political Psychology 22(1):127–156.Google Scholar
Jost, John T. 2006. ‘The End of the End of Ideology’. American Psychologist 61(7):651–670.Google Scholar
Jost, John T., Kruglanski, Arie W, and Sulloway, Frank J.. 2003. ‘Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition’. Psychological Bulletin 129(3):339–375.Google Scholar
Jost, John T., Nosek, Brian A., and Gosling, Samuel D.. 2006. ‘Ideology: Its Resurgence in Social, Personality, and Political Psychology’. Perspectives on Psychological Science 61(3):126–136.Google Scholar
Kellstedt, Paul M. 2003. The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McCrae, Robert R., and Costa, Paul T.. 1996. Toward a New Generation of Personality Theories: Theoretical Contexts for the Five-Factor Model. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 51–87.Google Scholar
Stimson, James A. 1991. Public Opinion in America: Moods, Cycles, and Swings. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Tajfel, Henri. 1974. ‘Social Identity and Intergroup Behavior’. Social Science Information 13(2):65–93.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Coggins and Stimson supplementary material 1

Appendix
Download Coggins and Stimson supplementary material 1(PDF)
PDF 80.8 KB
Supplementary material: Link

Coggins and Stimson Dataset

Dataset

http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/V8D7KT
Link