Core Political Values? A Comparative Analysis of Left-Right Political Ideology and Cultural Orientations Among Policy Elites and the General Public

Abstract

In this study, we attempt a comparative analysis of left-right political ideology vs. cultural orientations as potential core political values, primary sources of political attitudes and policy preference formation within an individual’s hierarchically structured belief system, among both policy elites and the general public in the U.S. context. In doing so, we particularly focus on evaluating Ripberger et al.’s (2012) claim that cultural orientations are “related to but different from political ideology” and “offer a robust system of worldviews that individuals of various levels of political knowledge [among the general public] might draw upon to form their opinions and make policy decisions” while relying on the Cultural Theory (CT), developed by Mary Douglas and Aaron Wildavsky, among others, that deduces the core political values of four distinctive dispositional orientations toward desirable social relations: egalitarianism, individualism, hierarchism, and fatalism. Throughout the implementation of multivariate analysis using a unique data set established from multiple original surveys of two important conceptual segments of political actors, local policy elites and the general public, within the energy policymaking process in Arkansas and Oregon in 2015 and 2016, we found that in both groups, cultural orientations constitute more robust and coherent core political values than the traditional left-right conception of political ideology. We conclude this paper by discussing ramifications of our findings in advancing research on public opinion, CT, and public policy theories.