Ideology in America

226 Pages·2012·2.083 MB·English

by  Christopher Ellis, James Stimson

IdeologyinAmerica
PublicopinionintheUnitedStatescontainsaparadox.TheAmerican
publicissymbolicallyconservative:itcherishesthesymbolsofconser-
vatismandismorelikelytoidentifyasconservativethanasliberal.Yet
atthesametime,itisoperationallyliberal,wantinggovernmenttodo
andspendmoretosolveavarietyofsocialproblems.Thisbookfocuses
onunderstandingthiscontradiction.Itarguesthatbothfacetsofpublic
opinionarerealandlasting,notartifactsofthesurveycontextoriso-
latedtoparticularpointsintime.Byexploringtheideologicalattitudes
oftheAmericanpublicasawhole,andtheseeminglyconflictedchoices
ofindividualcitizens,itexplainsthefoundationsofthisparadox.The
keys to understanding this large-scale contradiction, and to thinking
aboutitsconsequences,arefoundinAmericans’attitudestowardreli-
gionandcultureandintheframesinwhicheliteactorsdescribepolicy
issues.
Christopher Ellis is assistant professor of Political Science at Bucknell
University.HereceivedhisPh.D.fromtheUniversityofNorthCarolina
atChapelHillandhaspreviouslytaughtatNorthCarolinaStateUni-
versity.HisworkhasbeenpublishedintheJournalofPolitics,Political
Research Quarterly, Political Science and Politics, Electoral Studies,
andJournalofPublicOpinionandParties.
James A. Stimson earned his B.A. from the University of Minnesota
andhisPh.D.fromtheUniversityofNorthCarolina.Stimsonisformer
PresidentoftheMidwestPoliticalScienceAssociationandTreasurerof
the American Political Science Association. He has authored or coau-
thored six books: Yeas and Nays (with Donald R. Matthews), Issue
Evolution (with Edward G. Carmines), Public Opinion in America,
TheMacroPolity(withRobertS.EriksonandMichaelB.MacKuen),
Tides of Consent, and Mandate Politics (with Larry Grossback and
DavidA.M.Peterson).AFellowoftheAmericanAcademyofArtsand
Sciences, he has won the Heinz Eulau and Gladys Kammerer awards
oftheAmericanPoliticalScienceAssociation.Heisfoundingeditorof
PoliticalAnalysisandhasauthoredarticlesinallthemajorjournalsof
politicalscience.
AdvancePraiseforIdeologyinAmerica
“Inthisexcellentbook,EllisandStimsonuseasophisticatedmethod-
ological approach to trace the ebb and flow of ideology in American
public opinion over the past 75 years. Their insights are relevant to a
varietyofaudiences.Forjournalists,commentators,andpundits,Ellis
and Stimson show that the public’s liberal-conservative orientations
cannotbeextractedreadilyeitherfromelectionresultsorfrompublic
opinion survey questions. For academics, they elaborate on the schol-
arly consensus that the mass public is largely ‘innocent of ideology.’
Instead,theydemonstratesystematicpatternsinthewaysthatcitizens
‘misuse’liberal-conservativeterminologytodescribetheirownpolitical
orientations.Thisbookrepresentsamajorstepforwardinunderstand-
inghowordinarycitizensthinkaboutthepoliticalworld.”
–WilliamG.Jacoby,DepartmentofPoliticalScience,Michigan
StateUniversity;ICPSR,UniversityofMichigan
“In this extended treatment of the paradox of symbolic conservatism
andoperationalliberalismEllisandStimsonpresentimportantevidence
for the continuation of the phenomenon first uncovered by Free and
Cantrilin1967.Theydemonstratethatthese‘conflictedconservatives’
remainnumerousdespitetheapparentpolarizationoftheelectoratein
the recent past, that they differ from the general electorate, and that
theyareaforcesufficienttochangeclosepresidentialelectionoutcomes.
This is accomplished against the background of a fascinating account
of the decline in the symbolic resonance of liberal identification since
the1930s,andofthenonpoliticalmeaningsofconservatism.”
–KathleenKnight,ColumbiaUniversity
“Thisisacompellingbookonaninterestingandimportanttopic.Ellis
andStimsonprovideadrivinganalysisofseeminglyeveryfacetofthe
matchandmismatchbetweenpeople’spolicypreferencesandideolog-
icalidentificationinAmerica.Predictablystrongonsocialscience,the
bookalsoisaccessible,readable,andengaging.IdeologyinAmericais
asgoodasitgets.”
–ChristopherWlezien,TempleUniversity
Ideology in America
CHRISTOPHER ELLIS
BucknellUniversity
JAMES A. STIMSON
UniversityofNorthCarolina,ChapelHill
cambridgeuniversitypress
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,
Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo,Delhi,MexicoCity
CambridgeUniversityPress
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107687417
(cid:2)C ChristopherEllisandJamesA.Stimson2012
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
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noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2012
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationdata
Ellis,Christopher,1978–
IdeologyinAmerica/ChristopherEllis,JamesA.Stimson.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-107-01903-4(hardback)–ISBN978-1-107-68741-7(paperback)
1.Ideology–UnitedStates. 2.Conservatism–UnitedStates.
3.Liberalism–UnitedStates. 4.Socialconflict–UnitedStates.
5.Dividedgovernment–UnitedStates. 6.UnitedStates–Politicsand
government–Publicopinion. 7.Publicopinion–UnitedStates.
8.Americans–Attitudes. I.Stimson,JamesA. II.Title.
JC573.2.U6E55 2012
320.50973–dc23 2011035572
ISBN978-1-107-01903-4Hardback
ISBN978-1-107-68741-7Paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyofURLs
forexternalorthird-partyInternetWebsitesreferredtointhispublicationanddoesnot
guaranteethatanycontentonsuchWebsitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Contents
List of Figures page vii
List of Tables ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
1 The Meaning of Ideology in America 1
1.1 The Conflict Between Liberalism and Conservatism 2
1.2 The Two Faces of Ideology in American Politics 10
1.3 Plan of the Book 12
2 Operational Ideology: Preferences Data 14
2.1 Public Policy Preferences 15
2.2 Preferences: Concept and Data 17
2.3 Why Operational Liberalism? 24
2.4 Question Formats 31
2.5 The Dimensions of Policy Preference 34
3 Operational Ideology: The Estimates 37
3.1 The Dimensions of Operational Ideology 37
3.2 A Second Dimension of Preferences 49
3.3 Are the Two Dimensions Independent? 52
3.4 Appendix:CriterionVariablesUsedforDimensional
Interpretation 56
4 Ideological Self-Identification 57
4.1 Ideology as Self-Identification 58
4.2 Building a Historical Portrait of Symbolic Ideology 59
4.3 Explanations for Growing Conservative Identification 72
4.4 A Statistical Model 86
4.5 Conclusions: Building the Conservative Symbolic Majority 88
v
vi Contents
5 The Operational-Symbolic Disconnect 90
5.1 Operational and Symbolic Ideology at the Individual Level 92
5.2 TheOperational-SymbolicDisconnect:Some
Individual-Level Evidence 95
5.3 WhoArethe“OperationallyLiberalSymbolic
Conservatives”? 99
5.4 Ideology and Policy Preferences: A Multidimensional View 106
5.5 The Operational-Symbolic Paradox Revisited 112
5.6 Appendix:QuestionsandCodingUsedinCreation
of GSS Preference Measures 113
6 Conservatism as Social and Religious Identity 115
6.1 Cultural Issues and American Politics 116
6.2 AnotherExplanation:“Conservatism”asReligious
Identity 127
6.3 AnotherExplanation,Part2:“Conservatism”
as Social Identity 131
6.4 Extrapolitical Identity and Political Self-Identification 133
6.5 ConservativeLifestylesandConservativeIdeology:Some
Correlational Evidence 135
6.6 Modeling Social Identity and Ideological Self-Identification 138
6.7 “Populist” Preferences and Conservative Identification 142
6.8 Conclusions 144
6.9 Appendix:ANESQuestionsandCodingforPreference
Measures 145
7 Conflicted Conservatism 149
7.1 Are “Conflicted Conservatives” Really Conservative? 150
7.2 Conflicted Conservatism as Default Ideology 153
7.3 Framing and Mass Opinion 155
7.4 SymbolicConservatism,OperationalLiberalism,
and Conflicted Elite Frames 156
7.5 Ideological Language in the Mass Media 161
7.6 NewsExposure,Knowledge,andOperational-Symbolic
Conflict 167
7.7 “Conflicted Conservatism” and American Political Dynamics 173
8 Ideology and American Political Outcomes 175
8.1 Making Sense of Ideology in American Politics 175
8.2 The Electoral Impact of Conflicted Conservatives 177
8.3 Operational-Symbolic Dynamics 185
8.4 On the Measurement and Conceptualization of Ideology 189
8.5 On Public Rationality 191
Bibliography 195
Index 203
List of Figures
2.1 Average Liberal Percentage of the Response over Time page 23
3.1 Public Policy Mood First Dimension, 1952–2009 45
3.2 ASimpleConceptionofPartyandVoterSpacesinLeft
and Right 47
3.3 CumulativeLossofSupportforthePresident’sIdeological
Position 49
3.4 PublicPolicyMoodFirstandSecondDimensions,
1952–2009 50
3.5 Locating Issue Series in Two-Dimensional Space 54
3.6 Locating Issue Series in Two-Dimensional Space: Rotated 55
4.1 The Administration Series, 1936–1964 63
4.2 The Go Left Series, 1945–1979 64
4.3 The Identification Series, 1937–1970 65
4.4 The Party to Join Series, 1936–1978 66
4.5 The Preference Series, 1944–1970 66
4.6 The Estimated Series, 1936–1970 68
4.7 Ideological Self-Identification, 1937–2006 70
4.8 CorrelationsBetweenLiberalsThermometerandBlacks
Thermometer 79
4.9 CorrelationsBetweenLiberalsThermometerandLabor
Unions Thermometer 80
4.10 CorrelationsBetweenLiberalsThermometerandUrban
Unrest 81
4.11 CorrelationsBetweenLiberalsThermometerand
Thermometers for Black Militants and Civil Rights Leaders 82
5.1 Operational and Symbolic Ideology, 1952–2008 91
5.2 ComparisonofOperationalIdeologyMeasureandGSS
Spending Preference Measure 94
vii
viii ListofFigures
5.3 Net Preferences on Spending Issues, 1973–2006 95
5.4 Distribution of Operational and Ideological Preferences 96
5.5 OperationalandSymbolicIdeologuesbyClassification,
1973–2008 98
5.6 Net Preferences on “Cultural” Issues, 1973–2006 108
5.7 Operational Preferences of Self-Identified “Liberals” 109
5.8 Operational Preferences of Self-Identified “Conservatives” 110
6.1 ExpectedImpactofIssuePreferencesonIdeological
Identification, 1986–2006 Pooled 120
6.2 ExpectedImpactofIssuePreferencesonPartisan
Identification, 1986–2006 Pooled 121
6.3 Association of Issues with Republican Identification 123
6.4 Association of Issues with Conservative Identification 123
6.5 Biblical Views of the American Electorate, 1984–2006 130
7.1 OperationalandSymbolicIdeologiesofRespondents
Probed to Choose an Identification 155
7.2 Media Use of Ideological Language 163
8.1 The Accuracy of GSS Presidential Vote Recall 179
8.2 Operational and Symbolic Ideology 186
8.3 SquaredCorrelationsBetweenOperationalandSymbolic
Ideology Series for Three Periods 187
8.4 The Size of the Operational-Symbolic Gap over Time 188