Electoral Behavior and Public Policy Final Study Guide Ellis Stimson Ideology in America 1 Impact of Ideology on Vote Choice a Most Americans do not have a political ideology i Therefore it cannot have much of an effect on vote choice b Ideological Foundations i Operational Ideology 1 Position taken on domestic policy issues ii Symbolic Ideology 1 What people will identify as a generalized ideological stance iii If these two were correlated 1 Then that would be evidence of ideological thinking on behalf of the electorate a Yet in actuality most Americans do not have consistent ideological beliefs c Conflicted Ideologies i Symbolic Ideology 1 Most Americans are ideologically conservative ii Operational Ideology 1 Yet here they are predominantly liberal 2 The Symbolic Operational Disconnect ideologically opposite i With every change of power in the party in control of the presidency Americans react 1 They become more conservative during liberal administrations and more liberal during liberal administrations b Measures of Ideology i Types of individuals 1 Consistent Liberals a Both operationally and symbolically liberal 2 Consistent Conservatives a Both operationally and symbolically conservative 3 Constrained Conservatives a Operationally conservative only on economic issues 4 Conflicted Conservatives 5 Cultural Conservatives a Symbolically conservative yet operationally liberal on class and culture a Conservative only culturally but economically liberal Page 1 of 13 c Explanation for Cultural Conservatism i Issue Salience 1 Cultural issues carry more importance than economic ones a This was proven false as class issues trumped cultural ones 4 to 1 ii Transference of the conservative label from other non political dimensions 1 Individuals simply transfer their religious conservatism to reflect their self ideology a They do not realize that it constitutes different sentiments 2 Cultural conservatives simply transfer their social conservatism to their political iii Extra Political Identity and Political Identification 1 People label themselves as conservative independently of what their political identification opinions are 3 Cultural Conservatives a Possible explanations that have been ruled out i Cultural issues more salient and cross pressures individuals 1 Empirical data shows that it is actually class what is more salient than culture a Except in symbolic ideology i Here people unknowingly transfer their extra political conservative perceptions to a political dimension b Extra Political Transference occurs in 1 Religious Conservative Identities a Traditionalist vs modernist religious believers 2 Socially conservative identities a Civic minded idea of being a good moral patriotic citizen 4 Conflicted Conservatives b Levels of understanding i Neither culturally nor economically conservative in terms of policy i They must have at least some political knowledge ii They must accept both competing messages but will not try to reconcile them 1 As opposed to those with high levels of political knowledge who will reconcile them c Symbolic Framing i Public is most often subject to societal frames 1 The way in which policy is framed affects the way people view it a Since most people get their political knowledge through information framed by political elites Page 2 of 13 ii Dominant Frames 1 Those that dominate the culture and find rhetoric of the political elites 2 Here conservatism is viewed as respectively better than liberalism iii Republican political elites frame conservatism under heavy ideological terms 1 They do this in order to take as much advantage of the societal popularity of conservatism iv Liberal political elites instead focus on more specific political policies 1 This is mostly focused on combating the positive reactions to conservatism Instead of attacking an opponent s ideological stance they will attack the 2 candidate and his specific policies v Whoever introduces the proposal will be able to influence the frame the most 1 Since Democrats often propose increased government activity a They will be disproportionately framed i The popularity of liberal operational ideology can be understood from this framing Lewis Beck Et Al The American Voter Revisited Chp 11 Membership in Social Groups 1 Intro a The majority of Americans are not formal members of a political party i Even so they feel some psychological affiliation to a party that shapes their voting b Social Groups wield much political influence i Unlike parties these groups are not primarily political 2 Model of Group Influence i The model expresses itself in relation to three elements 1 The individual the group and the political world b Individuals that connect psychologically to a group will connect with a group norm and act based on it i They mimic the actions of the group 3 The Relationship of the Individual to the Group a Even though all members can belong to a group not all of them have the same attachment to it i Yet the more and individual identifies with a group the more he will adhere to the group norm 1 Catholics with low religious identification tend to be Democrats In line with the traditional view of Catholic Voters a Yet Catholic with a high group identification are more republican i This could be a sign of a group voting norm transition 2 Yet among blacks Democratic voting seems to be the norm even among both those with high and low group identification Page 3 of 13 ii The weaker an individual s identification is with a group the more likely they are to break away from it 1 Here blacks are the most cohesive and union members the least 4 The Relationship of the Group to the World of Politics a The individual relates to the group by psychological identification with it i The group relates to politics by proximity to it 1 Here the extent which members think the group should distance itself from politics affects their voting pattern a The more the individual thinks the group should stray from politics the less likely he is to vote in accordance with the group 5 Secondary Groups the Political Party and the Influence Process i Membership in political parties usually wield much political influence over its membership than any other group b Parties form a critical role in ensuring the transmission of group distinctiveness via its attachment to one party over the other i When the group connection to the campaign is less clear group leaders need to explain how the particular contest is relevant for their