Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T05:12:58.673Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Core Political Values and the Long-Term Shaping of Partisanship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2018

Geoffrey Evans  and
Anja Neundorf
Geoffrey Evans*
Affiliation:
Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Anja Neundorf
Affiliation:
School of Politics and International Relations
*
*Corresponding author: Email: Geoffrey.Evans@nuffield.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Party identification has been thought to provide the central organizing element for political belief systems. This article makes the contrasting case that core values concerning equality and government intervention versus individualism and free enterprise are fundamental orientations that can themselves shape partisanship. The authors evaluate these arguments in the British case using a validated multiple-item measure of core values, using ordered latent class models to estimate reciprocal effects with partisanship on panel data from the British Household Panel Study, 1991–2007. The findings demonstrate that core values are more stable than partisanship and have far stronger cross-lagged effects on partisanship than vice versa in both polarized and depolarized political contexts, for younger and older respondents, and for those with differing levels of educational attainment and income, thus demonstrating their general utility as decision-making heuristics.

Keywords

political valuespartisanshippanel datalatent class analysiscross-lagged analysis
Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 1263 - 1281
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018

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.)

References

Abramowitz, AI and Saunders, KL (1998) Ideological realignment in the US electorate. Journal of Politics 60 (3):634–652.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abramson, P (1979) Developing party identification: a further examination of life-cycle, generational, and period effects. American Journal of Political Science 23 (1):78–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, J, Green, J and Milazzo, C (2012) Has the British public depolarized along with political elites? An American perspective on British public opinion. Comparative Political Studies 45 (4):507–553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alwin, DF and Krosnick, JA (1991) Aging, cohorts and the stability of sociopolitical orientations over the life span. American Journal of Sociology 97 (1):169–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, CJ et al. (2004) Endogenous economic voting: evidence from the 1997 British election. Electoral Studies 23 (4):683–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansolabehere, S, Rodden, J and Snyder, JM Jr (2008) The strength of issues: using multiple measures to gauge preference stability, ideological constraint, and issue voting. American Political Science Review 102 (2):215–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansolabehere, S, Rodden, J and Snyder, JM Jr (2006) Purple America. Journal of Economic Perspectives 20 (2):97–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldassarri, D and Gelman, A (2008) Partisans without constraint: political polarization and trends in American public opinion. American Journal of Sociology 114 (2):408–446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bara, J (2006) The 2005 Manifestos: a sense of déja vu? Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 16 (3):265–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bara, J and Budge, I (2001) Party policy and ideology: still New Labour? Parliamentary Affairs 54, 590–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, L (2002) Beyond the running tally: partisan bias in political perceptions. Political Behavior 24 (2):117–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, L (2008) Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. New York and Princeton, NJ: Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bartle, J (1998) Left-right matters but does social class? Causal models for the 1992 general election. British Journal of Political Science 28 (2):117–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartle, J (2000) Political awareness, opinion constraint and the stability of ideological positions. Political Studies 48, 467–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartle, J (2001) The measurement of party identification in Britain: where do we stand now? British Elections & Parties Review 11, 9–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartle, J, Stimson, J and Dellepiane-Avelleneda, S (2011) The moving centre: preferences for government activity in Britain, 1950–2005. British Journal of Political Science 41 (2):259–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartle, J, Stimson, J and Dellepiane-Avelleneda, S (2013) The dimensionality of British public preferences: a macro-level perspective. Working Paper, University of Essex.Google Scholar
Brynin, M and Sanders, D (1997) Party identification, political preferences and material conditions: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey, 1991–2. Party Politics 3 (1):53–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budge, I (1999) Party policy and ideology: reversing the 1950s. In Evans G and Norris P, (eds) Critical Elections: British Parties and Voters in Long-Term Perspective. London: Sage, pp. 1–22.Google Scholar
Budge, I et al. (2001) Mapping Policy Preferences: Estimates for Parties, Electors, and Governments 1945–1998. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Butler, D and Stokes, DE (1974) Political Change in Britain: The Evolution of Electoral Choice. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, A et al. (1960) The American Voter. New York: Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Carsey, TM and Layman, G (2006) Changing sides or changing minds? Party identification and policy preferences in the American electorate. American Journal of Political Science 50 (2):464–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chzhen, K, Evans, G and Pickup, M (2014) When do economic perceptions matter for government approval? Examining the endogeneity of economic perceptions before and during the economic downturn. Political Behavior 36, 291–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, H et al. (2009) Performance Politics and the British Voter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Converse, P (1964) The Structure of Belief Systems in Mass Publics. In Apter D, (ed.) Ideology and Discontent. New York: Free Press, pp. 206–261.Google Scholar
Curtice, J (2016) Brexit: behind the referendum. Political Insight 1 (September):4–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dancy, L and Goren, P (2010) Party identification, issue attitudes, and the dynamics of political debate. American Journal of Political Science 54 (3):686–699.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G and Andersen, R (2004) Do issues decide? Partisan conditioning and perceptions of party issue positions across the electoral cycle. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties 14 (1):18–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G and Andersen, R (2006) The political conditioning of economic perceptions. Journal of Politics 68, 194–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G and Chzhen, K (2016) Re-evaluating valence models of political choice. Political Science: Research & Methods 4 (1):199–220.Google Scholar
Evans, G, Heath, A and Lalljee, M (1996) Measuring left–right and libertarian–authoritarian values in the British electorate. British Journal of Sociology 47 (1):93–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G and Mellon, J (2016) Working class votes and conservative losses: solving the UKIP puzzle. Parliamentary Affairs 69 (2):464–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G and Menon, A (2017) Brexit and British Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Evans, G and Neundorf, A (2018) Replication data for: Core Political Values and the Long-Term Shaping of Partisanship, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VJTN9Z, Harvard Dataverse, V1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G and Tilley, J (2012) The depoliticization of inequality and redistribution: Explaining the decline of class voting. Journal of Politics 74, 963–976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G and Tilley, J (2017) The New Politics of Class: The Political Exclusion of the British Working Class. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, S (1988) Structure and consistency in public opinion: the role of core beliefs and values. American Journal of Political Science 32, 416–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiske, ST and Taylor, SE (2013) Social Cognition, 2nd edn, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, R and Goodwin, MJ (2014) Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuchs, D and Klingemann, H-D (1989) The left–right schema. In Jennings MK and van Deth JW, (eds) Continuities in Political Action: A Longitudinal Study of Political Orientations in Three Western Democracies. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 203–234.Google Scholar
Gilens, M (2005) Inequality and democratic responsiveness. Public Opinion Quarterly 69 (5):778–796.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goren, P (2005) Party identification and core political values. American Journal of Political Science 49 (3):881–896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, DP and Palmquist, B (1990) Of artifacts and partisan instability. American Journal of Political Science 34 (3):872–902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, DP and Palmquist, B (1994) How stable is party identification? Political Behavior 16 (4):437–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, DP, Palmquist, B and Schickler, E (2002) Partisan Hearts and Minds. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Green, J (2007) When voters and parties agree: valence issues and party competition. Political Studies 55 (3):629–655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, J and Hobolt, SB (2008) Owning the issue agenda: party strategies and vote choices in British elections. Electoral Studies 27 (3):460–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, A, Evans, G and Martin, J (1994) The measurement of core beliefs and values: the development of balanced socialist/laissez faire and libertarian/authoritarian scales. British Journal of Political Science 24 (1):115–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, A, Jowell, R and Curtice, J (1985) How Britain Votes. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Heath, A et al. (1991) Understanding Political Change: The British Voter 1964-1987. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Heath, A and Pierce, R (1992) It was party identification all along: question order effects on reports of party identity in Britain. Electoral Studies 11 (2):93–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, O (2015) Policy representation, social representation and class voting in Britain. British Journal of Political Science 45 (1):173–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, O (2016) Policy alienation, social alienation and working class abstention in Britain, 1964–2010. British Journal of Political Science 1–21 doi: 10.1017/S0007123416000272.Google Scholar
Highton, B and Kam, CD (2011) The long-term dynamics of partisanship and issue orientation. Journal of Politics 73 (1):202–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, R and Klingemann, H-D (1976) Party identification, ideological preference, and the left–right dimension among western mass publics. In Budge I, Crewe I and Farlie D, (eds) Party Identification and Beyond: Representations of Voting and Party Competition. London: Wiley, pp. 243–273.Google Scholar
Jenkins, SP (2011) Changing Fortunes: Income Mobility and Poverty Dynamics in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, MK (1989) The crystallization of orientations. In Barnes SH, van Deth JW and Jennings MK, (eds) Continuities in Political Action. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, pp. 313–348.Google Scholar
Klingemann, H-D et al. (2006) Mapping Policy Preferences II: Estimates for Parties, Governments and Electors in the OECD, EU and Central and Eastern Europe 1990–2003. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ladner, M and Wlezien, C (2007) Partisan preferences, electoral prospects, and economic expectations. Comparative Political Studies 40, 571–596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lau, RR and Redlawsk, DP (2001) Advantages and disadvantages of cognitive heuristics in political decision making. American Journal of Political Science 45 (4):951–971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laver, M and Budge, I (1992) Party Policy and Government Coalitions. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClosky, H and Zaller, J (1984) The American Ethos: Public Attitudes Toward Capitalism and Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McCutcheon, AL (1987) Latent Class Analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meltzer, AH and Richard, SF (1981) A rational theory of the size of government. Journal of Political Economy 89 (5):914–927.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milazzo, C, Adams, J and Green, J (2012) Are voter decision rules endogenous to parties policy strategies? A model with applications to elite depolarization in post-thatcher Britain. Journal of Politics 74 (1):262–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neundorf, A and Adams, J (2018) The micro-foundations of party competition and issue ownership: the reciprocal effects of citizens’ issue salience and party attachments. British Journal of Political Science 48 (2):385–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rehm, P and Reilly, T (2010) United we stand: constituency homogeneity and comparative party polarization. Electoral Studies 29 (1):40–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rokeach, M (1973) The Nature of Human Values. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Rose, D and Harrison, E (eds). (2010) Social Class in Europe: An Introduction to the European Socio-Economic Classification. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sanders, D and Brynin, M (1999) The dynamics of party preference change in Britain, 1991–1996. Political Studies 47, 219–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skrondal, A and Rabe-Hesketh, S (2004) Generalized Latent Variable Modeling: Multilevel, Longitudinal, and Structural Equation Models. London: Chapman & Hall/CRC Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sniderman, PM and Piazza, T (1993) The Scar of Race. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sniderman, PM and Stiglitz, EH (2012) The Reputational Premium. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Webb, P (2004) Party responses to the changing electoral markets in Britain. In Mair P, Muller W and Plasser F, (eds) Political Parties and Electoral Change. London: Sage, pp. 20–48.Google Scholar
Wlezien, C (1995) The public as thermostat: dynamics of preferences for spending. American Journal of Political Science 39, 981–1000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wlezien, C and Soroka, SN (2005) Opinion–policy dynamics: public preferences and public expenditure in the United Kingdom. British Journal of Political Science 35, 665–689.Google Scholar
Zaller, J (1992) The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, J and Feldman, S (1992) A simple theory of the survey response. American Journal of Political Science 36, 579–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Evans and Neundorf supplementary material

Evans and Neundorf supplementary material 1

Download Evans and Neundorf supplementary material(File)
File 139.2 KB