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Left and Right: Political Attitudes and Opinions

Left and Right: Political Attitudes and Opinions. Dr Justin Greaves Department of Politics and International Studies University of Warwick. So who am I?. Currently teach first and second year students in PAIS Particular interest in British politics Interest in working across subject areas

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Left and Right: Political Attitudes and Opinions

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  1. Left and Right: Political Attitudes and Opinions Dr Justin Greaves Department of Politics and International Studies University of Warwick

  2. So who am I? • Currently teach first and second year students in PAIS • Particular interest in British politics • Interest in working across subject areas (‘interdisciplinarity’)

  3. Political views • People have different views about political issues • One way of characterising such views is the ‘left/right’ political spectrum • Originated from the time of the French Revolution • The aristocracy sat on the right of the King, and the popular movements to the left

  4. Do you agree? • ‘Higher education should be free for all and there should be no tuition fees’.

  5. Do you agree? • ‘Rich people have worked hard to make their money and therefore they should pay as little tax as possible’

  6. Do you agree? • ‘Many unemployed people spend too much time watching Jeremy Kyle and not enough time looking for work. Therefore, we should reduce their welfare benefits’.

  7. Left-right spectrum • Right-wingers stress freedom or the rights of individuals to do as they please – free from interference from government • Left-wings believe that such freedom is at the expense of the weak. Promoting equality is far more important. Therefore, a larger role for government

  8. Why do you think people have different views on political issues?

  9. Possible explanations • Genes • Upbringing (parents/friends) • Financial situation/class/personal circumstances • ‘Reason’ – rationally thinking through the issues?

  10. The three main parties

  11. The three party leaders

  12. Difficulties may occur when people with different political views try to work together • How does this apply to the Coalition government?

  13. A fair reflection or not?

  14. Broken promises in politics

  15. ‘Public Opinion’ • You will have seen opinion polls in the media • These may only interview 1000 people out of the whole population of Britain • If the sample is ‘representative’ these polls should be accurate

  16. Polls usually have a margin of error of + or – 3% • 19 times out of 20 a poll should fall between this margin of error

  17. What could cause an opinion poll to be biased or skewed in some way?

  18. A few ideas • An unrepresentative sample • ‘Politically-correct answers’ (people like to come across to others as being nice!) • Faulty memories • Loaded (or badly worded) questions • Key problem: polls measure attitudes and opinions not behaviour

  19. Getting the answer you want • This clip from Yes Prime Minister is very illuminating on opinion polls!

  20. I hope you have enjoyed this seminar • More about my teaching and research interests can be found at this link: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/greaves • Video of one of my undergraduate lectures on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5NJyrkT-2w

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