Ideology Spotting: An Exercise in Teaching Conservatism and Liberalism

Abstract

It has long been lamented that Americans do not comprehend conservative and liberal ideologies and the associated policy preferences for each perspective (and the reasoning behind the associations). This research seeks to contribute to the teaching of conservatism and liberalism by creating a heuristic outlining six general characteristics for each ideological persuasion. The heuristic is designed to have application across time and space. The article outlines a simple, widely applicable current events assignment designed to utilize the heuristic and reviews the results of implementation from two semesters. The results, although exploratory in nature, indicate that the heuristic and the according assignment can be useful pedagogical tools for providing a foundation for understanding these basic ideological categories. Moreover, the assignment provides the opportunity for students to develop their abilities at interpreting domestic politics within and across countries.