The Political Party Affiliation of College Professors

Abstract

literature on political party preference of college professors presents the consistent finding that social scientists tend overwhelmingly to identify with the Democratic party. Using a stratified random sample of college professors, this study explores the effects of discipline as well as region, type of school, faculty size, and professorial rank on political party preference. data reveal that although each of these variables has an effect upon the dependent variable, region and discipline are the most salient. T nhe higher the socioeconomic status of a population category, the greater the probability of its identification with -the Republican party. This is a consistent finding in the literature on voting behavior.1 Represenltative of such a generalization is that made by Campbell and Cooper who summnarize their findings by stating: Our data make it evident that a number of the major population categories have a persistent inclination toward one or the other of the two parties. major theme of this group orientation in v7oting is social class. prestige groupseducational, econonmic-are the most dependable sources of Republican support, w0hile laborers, Negroes, unemployed, and other low-income and low.education groups are the strongest sources of the 'Democratic vote.2 While such a generalization is basically valid, it is not an iron law. Certainly there are categories and/or groups of people within a community or nation which provide deviant cases. It is the basic problemi of this paper to analyze the political party affiliation of college professors to ascertainwhetlher this category wlhich is relatively high in incomne anld prestige is such a deviant case. THE FINDINGS OF PREVIOUS STUDIES Robert Yee examiinied a ranldomii samiiple of the professors in the tlhree Waslhingtoln state colleges (N= 114) to cleterminiie, am-iong other things, the party idlentificationl of these professors. He found that 64 percenlt of his samiiple were party identifiers (nominial to strong) witlh Democrats outnumbering Republicans by a ratio of 2:1 (43 percent were Denmocrats, 21 percent Republicans, anad 32.4 percent were not interested or Independents) .3 Yee's research, wlhile informative, is limited in its utility because of the small sample size, the use of only state colleges, and the fact that it is confined to only one state. Turlner, Spaulding, and McClintock lhave reseal-clhed the political orientations of academicallv affiliated sociologists4 and political scientists., Tlhey found that 77.9 percent of the 1 Cf. Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, People's Chioice (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1944); Bernard Berelson, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and 'William McPhee, Votinig (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954); Anguis Campbell, Philip E. Coniverse, Warren E. Miller. and Donald E. Stokes, Amtierican Voter (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1960) Robert E. Lane, Politicol Life (Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press, 1959); alnd Seymour Martin Lipset, Mast (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1960). 2 Angus Campbell and Homler C. Cooper, Group Differentces in Attitutdes anzd Votes (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1959), p. 35. 3 Robert Yee, Faculty Participation in the 1960 Presidential Election, W esterui Quarterly, 16 (Marclh 1963), pp. 213-220. 4 Henry A. Turner, Charles B. Spaulding, and Clharles G. McClintock, Political Orientations of Academically Affiliated Sociologists, Sociology canid Social Resera ch, 47 (April 1963), l)p. 273-289. 5 Heniry A. Turner, Charles G. McClintock, and Charles B. Spaulding, The Party Affiliation of American Scientists, Western Quarterly, 16 (Septemliber 1960), pp. 650665. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.163 on Wed, 21 Sep 2016 05:19:56 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms