Families' Values: How Parents, Siblings, and Children Affect Political Attitudes

209 Pages·2014·1.54 MB·English

by  R. Urbatsch

Families’ Values

Families’ Values
How Parents, Siblings, and Children
Affect Political Attitudes
R. Urbatsch
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Urbatsch, Robert.
Families’ values : how parents, siblings, and children affect
political attitudes / Robert Urbatsch.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–937360–4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Political socialization.
2. Political psychology. 3. Families—Political aspects. 4. Political
participation—Social aspects I. Title.
JA76.U73 2014
306.2—dc23
2014004359
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For my grandmother,
who knows a thing or two about family

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
1. What We Know About Families and Why We Should Know More 1
2. The Conservative Children of Stay-at-Home Mothers 21
3. The Ideological Pull of Siblings 43
4. Birth Order Revisited: Attitudes Toward Morality 64
5. Girls Are from Mars, Boys Are from Venus: Children
and Militarism 83
6. Children, Economic Security, and Support for Big Government 103
7. Conclusion: It’s All Relatives 120
Appendix: Statistical Models and Technical Details 131
Notes 159
References 175
Index 191

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As the classic formula goes, this book would never have been written with-
out Bill Mishler and Jan Leighley. I come from the article-writing, not
book-writing, side of the social sciences and so instinctively conceived of
ideas about politics and the family as articles. But Drs. Leighley and Mishler
disagreed heartily; when I submitted one such idea, the core of chapter 2,
to the journal they edited, they summarily rejected it. This is the academic
equivalent of being shot down without even a first date and similarly leaves
everyone involved feeling vaguely embarrassed (and the petitionee poten-
tially offended at being surmised to possibly have such low standards). So,
in addition to my gratitude for inspiring the transmogrification of these
explorations into a book, I also extend my apologies. Sorry!
Then again, I have collected a fearsome number of rejections-without-review
on grounds of eccentricity of topic. This makes all the more valuable the
support of Jeffry Frieden and Beth Simmons, two exceptional scholars
and delightful people with the extraordinary patience to put up with me
and whatever ideas followed me into their offices. Their encouragement in
the early stages of both this project and in my career more generally, and
the ideas they generously shared, helped lay the foundations for this book.
Jonathan Rodden was equally accommodating, willing to discuss thoughts
on anything from the importance of geography to the vast trove of data in
Norwegian parish records, without batting an eye except for that one time
I started talking about the constitution of Papua New Guinea. His input,
too, informs this book in ways great and small.
More specific reflections on parts of this enterprise came from Sonal
Pandya. Indeed, she coauthored my first project considering the role of
family in political preferences, an examination of how the industry of one’s
spouse’s employment changes one’s economic policy preferences. I am very
grateful for her taking time out of her burgeoning career to have these
discussions.