The Differences Between the Parties

1. The Differences Between the Parties You Can’t tell the players without a scorecard

2. Clearly Communicated Learning Objectives • Evaluate how people develop political opinions and how this impacts their political behavior. • Evaluate and interpret the importance of partisanship in shaping political opinion and vote choice

3. Not That Important Social Class

4. Why not social class • The Parties do not try to exploit social class • We have never had an appreciable socialist movement • People identify with other groups before class

5. Measuring Social Class • We ask people which class they belong to • We are very likely to say middle class • Within Social classes there are great variations in income • Our partisanship doesn’t change with rising or lowering class.

6. Social Class and Partisanship Republicans Democrats Do better with poor and working class Do better with the very wealthiest Do better with Union Members • Do better with poor whites in the South • Do better with Upper Middle Class voters • Historically have done better with Middle Class voters

7. There is a Difference Age

8. Not as Big a Deal • Age is not as important as other factors in determining partisanship • Young voters tend to be less interested in the system • Young voters tend to be more Democratic

9. Race and ethnicity

10. The American Electorate • Race is more important than class • African Americans form a political self-conscious group. And Identify with the Democratic Party

11. African American Turnout • This has increased since the 1960’s • African Americans are heavily Democratic • Important swing voters in battleground states

13. Hispanic Voters • The Fastest growing and largest ethnicity • Increasingly Democratic since 2000 • Key in CO, FL, NM

14. Gender

15. Facts on the Ground • Women vote more than men • The Gender Gap • Women vote more for Democratic Candidates • Issue ownership

16. Size of the Gender Gap • Ranges from 5-10 Points • Security Moms in 2004 • Obama wins both men and women

17. Married vs. Single Women • Married women vote more Republican • Self-Identified Feminists are very Democratic

19. Ideology A way of looking at Politics

20. What is an Ideology • A set of Fundamental beliefs about government and politics • They fit together into some consistent and coherent view of the political world • How should government work?

21. Identifying Ideologies • Americans are able to identify themselves • Americans are able to identify the relative ideological positions of the parties.

22. More Moderates and Conservatives

23. It is Not the Same as Party Identification!

24. It Tends to be stable

25. Figure 4.8 The public’s policy “mood,” 1952–2008

26. College Kids Tend to Be Liberal

28. Ideologies vary on Issues

29. Ideologies vary on Social Issues in Particular

30. Many voters Cannot Use Ideology Meaningfully • Very Few of us are Politically sophisticated • Most of us group ideology based on the likes and dislikes of the parties and candidates they represent • A lot of us have no issue content whatsoever

31. Correspondence of Ideological Self-Ratings and Summary of Positions on Ten Issues, 2008

32. Levels of Political Conceptualization, 1956–2000