Social Structural Theories of Voting

This lecture was given in PS 240 on 9/26 and continued on 9/29 briefly.

Possible Exam Questions

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Lecture Material

We covered...

Social context

    Origins of our beliefs, etc. - instilled in us - our attitudes and the attitudes of others.

Politics - parties activate class identity, religious identity - based on how much support they gain.

Connections between voting and social predictors 1. socio-economic 2. religion 3. ethnicity

Three fundamental processes by which associations are formed 1. Differentiation - look at a group (group B)and see that they are different than us. Since we do not believe that way, we must be something else (group A). 2. Transmission - attention transmitted through authority figure to child (through friends, teachers, etc.) 3. Contact - direct contact with other members of the social group.

Challenges:

Dealignment / Realignment (shifts or dramatic changes in political alignments)

Realigning elections in United States history 1800 — Thomas Jefferson - Democratic-Republican Party (from the Federalist Party) 1828 — Andrew Jackson - Democratic Party 1860 — Abraham Lincoln - Republican Party 1896 — William McKinley - Republican Party (marked the beginning of the Progressive Era) 1932 — Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Democrat (New Deal) 1964 - Lyndon B. Johnson - Democratic 1968 — Richard Nixon - Republican 1980 — Ronald Reagan - Republican

Reasons for realignment: class weakens increase in education greater amount of contact outside of our groups secularization

Other challenges: New American Voter (from 1960's (published in 1970's)) Vote more on issues instead of party voters are sophisticated and more knowledgeable Class - service economy divide between public and private sector workers

post materialism

quality of life - environment, air quality, etc

partisan identification