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March 14, 2008
The increasing importance of moral issues in American politics
From my paper with Delia:
Party identification and self-defined liberalism/conservatism are increasingly correlated with positions on specific issues. The increases in correlations have been highest for moral issues. Issue positions have also become increasingly correlated with each other--but the increases have been smaller than the increased correlations with party ID and liberal/conservative ideology. Correlations between pairs of issues have increased by about 2% per decade, on average, while correlations of issues with party or ideology have increased by about 5% per decade (again, on average). The data come from the National Election Study.
Our story: voters are sorting themselves into parties and ideologies based on their issue attitudes; having done this sorting, they are aligning themselves slightly with their new allies.
Posted by Andrew at March 14, 2008 12:18 AM
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Comments
the same thing has come to pass in the netherlands, according to van der Eijk & Niemoller, among others, but it has always been explained from the demise of the dutch "pillars" i.e. tightly knit social groups: catholics, protestants, socialists, and others. (in the old days group membership explained everything, now it is ideology, based on issues)
So it's interesting that it also happened in the US.
I would guess that in Europe the 'stance on morals' line would be a ' stance on immigration' line!
Posted by: daniel at March 18, 2008 5:33 AM.