Ideological Identity Research Articles

VERTYBIŲ KOMUNIKACIJOS YPATYBĖS LIETUVOS POLITINIŲ PARLAMENTINIŲ PARTIJŲ PROGRAMOSE (2016 METŲ RINKIMŲ ATVEJIS)

The article discusses the results of value-based communication analysis in the electoral programs of winning parties in Republic of Lithuania Seimas’2016 year election (LVŽS, LSDP, TS-LKD, LRLS, TT, LLRA-KŠS). With the application of three criteria of programs’ analysis – the volume of thematic parts, semantic segments, and ideological values – these questions were addressed: the connection and differences between winner parties’ attitudes towards values; whether traditional parties have preserved ideological identity; what coalitions after the election in the Seimas were possible based on values. The research data revealed that communication of values relevant to society in all analyzed programs is very similar, and, through cluster analysis, the connections between ideological values’ communication were established foremost between traditional parties (first cluster). The second cluster consists of less related programs of other parties. Almost identical results were established when analysing this aspect based on programs’ structural parts. Thus two separate structural elements with stronger (first case) and weaker (second case) interconnections were determined.

“Sovereign democracy”: the roots, contents and critique of contemporary Russian political thought

Background: The paper is devoted to the concept of ‘‘sovereign democracy’’ that emerged in Russia in 2005 and was thought to play an important political role. The concept, authored by Vladimir Surkov, the deputy chief of the Administration of the President, having both internal and external political goals, was the first attempt of the formulation of the values of the new political system under Vladimir Putin. The paper discusses the roots of ‘‘sovereign democracy’’, its contents, and critique. It also presents the circumstances of a decline of this concept in 2007–2008, which resulted from the new rhetoric of President Dmitry Medvedev.Objectives: The main goal of the following paper is to present and discuss the contents of the Russian political concept of “sovereign democracy”. Since this concept was the first, and as it turned out — only attempt by the Russian ruling elite to define its own ideological identity, the following study enables us to make some remarks regarding the axiology and ideological maturity of “Putinism”. Methods: The adopted perspective of the investigation imposes the employment of the his-torical method and the exegesis of the documents.Results: “Sovereign democracy” was the first effort of this kind to define contemporary Rus-sian national interests, the challenges and opportunities, both in internal and external dimensions. It embraces a diagnosis of Russia’s main problems in the first decade of the 21st century: the vulner-ability of the economy based on the export of oil and gas, the unfavourable international situation, and a possible unipolar world order. It has had national and international aims: consolidation of the political elite and a clear message to international society that Russia will not give up the reshaping of the world towards a multipolar one. Since its beginning, the concept was understood doubly — as a future “state ideology” and as a short-lived project for current political purposes. Despite the fact that it was officially adopted by the “One Russia” party, it was not recognised by V. Putin and did not obtain any official status. Conclusions: Being, in fact, the product of one man — Vladimir Surkov, the concept of sovereign democracy emerged in 2005 as a response to the need for a tool to mobilise society before parliamentary and presidential elections. As a result of the restrained and sceptical attitude of V. Putin and D. Medvedev, the concept was not developed and abandoned by the “One Russia”

What We Eat Is Who We Are: The Role of Ethnic Attachment as an Ideological Base of Animal Exploitation

ABSTRACT Current research supports the idea that attitudes toward animals, including their rights and treatment, relate to other social and ideological views. In this study, I explored whether attitudes toward animals relate to wider ideological beliefs and important social identities in Serbia. I conducted two surveys to identify these relationships. In the first study, a sample (n = 321) from the general population completed a questionnaire asking about their attitudes toward animals, their acceptance of authority and societal order (right-wing authoritarianism), their preference for social hierarchy (social dominance orientation), and the importance of their social identities (gender, ethnicity, religion). I found that participants who were less supportive of animal rights also endorsed authoritarianism and relations of social dominance between groups to a larger extent. Furthermore, those who identified more strongly with gender, ethnicity, and religion also expressed more negative attitudes toward animals. In the second study, I surveyed undergraduate students in Serbia (n = 207) to determine the role of ethnic attachment as an ideological basis for attitudes toward animals. Perceptions of vegetarianism as an alternative lifestyle and a threat to the local traditions mediated the effects of ethnic attachment on both attitudes toward animals and meat consumption. However, this was true only for participants who prioritized group needs over individual needs (collectivists). In contrast, those with individualist views were more likely to endorse discrimination on the basis of species, regardless of their ethnocentrism. The findings show that attitudes toward animals correlated with endorsement of social hierarchies and with valuing the superiority of the ethnic ingroup. Attitudes toward animals thus relate to wider ideological views, in particular perceiving vegetarianism as a threat to the traditional values. I also discuss the implications of the findings for the study of human–animal relations.

Idealism, Disillusionment, and Cynicism in Response to Values (In)Congruences in U.K. Nonprofit Organizations: An Exploratory Study

I present the findings of an exploratory qualitative enquiry into how employees in U.K.-based nonprofit organizations with clearly espoused organizational values experience values (in)congruences. Participants tended to adopt one of three positions—idealism, disillusionment, or cynicism—which they may transition between at different times. I use the theoretical lenses of the ideological psychological contract, organizational identification, and organizational cynicism to interpret these employees’ experiences. These data show how ideological psychological contract and organizational identification processes are entwined as employees fluidly navigate values (in)congruence in nonprofits. This analysis supports a critical reading of organizational cynicism, demonstrating how nonprofit values can be experienced as a form of managerial control, against which employees may wish to defend their selfhood. Several directions for future research are indicated.

Genes, Ideology, and Sophistication

AbstractTwin studies function as natural experiments that reveal political ideology’s substantial genetic roots, but how does that comport with research showing a largely nonideological public? This study integrates two important literatures and tests whether political sophistication – itself heritable – provides an “enriched environment” for genetic predispositions to actualize in political attitudes. Estimates from the Minnesota Twin Study show that sociopolitical conservatism is extraordinarily heritable (74%) for the most informed fifth of the public – much more so than population-level results (57%) – but with much lower heritability (29%) for the public’s bottom half. This heterogeneity is clearest in the Wilson–Patterson (W-P) index, with similar patterns for individual index items, an ideological constraint measure, and ideological identification. The results resolve tensions between two key fields by showing that political knowledge facilitates the expression of genetic predispositions in mass politics.

The Forging of Legitimate Authority in the Ceasefire Mixed-control Karen Areas of Myanmar

ABSTRACT This article investigates how legitimate authority is forged in a tenuous ceasefire context by looking at how communities navigate dual administration by both the Government of Myanmar and the armed group, the Karen National Union (KNU), to secure access to land and forests. The findings identify two factors crucial to forging legitimate authority among civilians in mixed-control areas: ideological identification with authorities and authorities’ ability to fulfil their followers’ basic material needs. The findings show that although the government is in close competition with the KNU in providing for people’s material welfare in these areas, the KNU has an advantage in the ideological dimensions of legitimacy. The findings reinforce a broader idea that has become more commonplace in development thinking – that in order to make political settlements more conflict-sensitive and relevant to the lived realities of people impacted by armed conflict, state-building and peacebuilding must prioritise the governance preferences of local communities.

The nature and origins of political polarization over science.

People have a tendency to disregard information that contradicts their partisan or ideological identity. This inclination can become especially striking when citizens reject notions that scientists would consider “facts” in the light of overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus. The resulting polarization over science has reached alarming levels in recent years. This theoretical review conceptualizes political polarization over science and argues that it is driven by two interrelated processes. Through psychological science rejection, people can implicitly disregard scientific facts that are inconsistent with their political identity. Alternatively, citizens can engage in ideological science rejection by adhering to a political ideology that explicitly contests science. This contestation can in turn be subdivided into four levels of generalization: An ideology can dispute either specific scientific claims, distinct research fields, science in general, or the entire political system and elite. By proposing this interdisciplinary framework, this article aims to integrate insights from various disciplines.

Communities of Darkness? Users and Uses of Anti-System Alternative Media between Audience and Community

The hopes regarding the positive impact of the Internet and digital participation in civic society have faded in recent years. The digital realm is now increasingly discussed regarding its role in putting democracy in jeopardy and polarizing public debate by propagating extremist views and falsehoods. Likewise, the perception of so-called alternative media as beneficial carriers of counter-public spheres and as important complements to mainstream positions in social debate has flipped. Alternative media are now often associated with the “Wicked web” of disinformation, political populism, or even radicalization. Following Quandt’s (2018) notion of ‘dark participation’ and Phillips and Milner’s (2017) description of the Internet as ambivalent, this article asks, whether the same holds true for the users of alternative media: a segment of the audience traditionally discussed in terms of community, engagement, participation, and strong ideological identification with progressive political causes. Do users of ‘dark’ alternative media bond with their media in similar ways to constitute communities of darkness? Based on interviews with 35 users of alternative media from a left-leaning, right-wing, Russian-tied and/or conspiracy spectrum users, uses of alternative media are pictured as grey rather than black or white. The findings illuminate the ambivalences within alternative media users as audiences and communities. Ambivalences are found regarding the use of alternative sources as audience or community members, regarding a shared attitude of criticality and anti-systemness, which connects trans-medially and trans-ideologically, as well as the experienced comfort of community, which can become a main motivation for use.

Registered Report: Testing Ideological Asymmetries in Measurement Invariance.

People with different ideological identities differ in their values, personality, affect, and psychological motivations. These differences are observed on measures of practical and clinical importance and these differences are the central node tying together theories about the psychology of political ideology; however, they rest on a critical untested assumption: The measures are invariant across ideological groups. Here, we test this assumption across 28 constructs in data from the United States and the Netherlands. Measures are not invariant across ideological divisions. At the same time, estimates of ideological similarities and differences are largely similar before and after correcting for measurement noninvariance. This may give us increased confidence in the results from this research area, while simultaneously highlighting that some instance of noninvariance did change conclusions and that individual items are not always comparable across political groups.

What goes with what and for whom? How political sophistication shapes the structuring of economic and cultural beliefs

Recent studies have acknowledged the heterogeneity in the way citizens make sense of their economic and cultural beliefs, thus calling to question the conventional assumption that political views are organized along a single liberal-conservative dimension and connected accordingly with left–right identifications. Our article contributes to this stream of research. Primarily highlighting the influence of political sophistication on attitude consistency, we show that only the most interested in politics associate their economic and cultural attitudes in accordance with the liberal-conservative continuum and are able to combine them in a coherent fashion with their ideological identifications. In contrast, large segments of the French public do not respond to the dominant framing of the political debate.

The Substantive Basis of Ideological Identification and its Behavioral Consequences in the United States

Scholars of political representation debate whether ideology is issue based–i.e., founded on substantive attitudes — or a social identity — i.e., derived from a sense of group-belonging. I argue that there is no contradiction between identity and issue-based ideology and that the degree of disconnect between attitudes and ideological self-placement has been exaggerated. I examine 10 panel surveys, spanning 45 years and 295,405 interviews, to show that ideological identification is about as stable over time as that greatest of political identities: partisanship. Additionally, data from the American National Election Studies indicate that ideological self-placement today is as affectively loaded as party identification. I also show that the labels liberal,'' moderate,'' and conservative'' are strongly predictive of attitudes, once we control for measurement error. Therefore, ideology has both an identity-based and an attitudinal dimension to it. Scholars also debate whether or not ideology matters in American politics. Some argue that it is predictive of behavior, while others claim its role is negligible. I employ a variety of estimators to isolate the independent relationship between ideological identification and presidential, Congressional and gubernatorial vote choice. I find significant and substantively large effects of ideology on presidential and Congressional elections. These results suggest a more optimistic view of democracy than has been the norm among most students of American politics — one in which voters are comfortable with ideological language and vote accordingly.

The Path Choice of "Family and Country Feelings" Mode of Undergraduates' Entrepreneurship in Frontier Regions

With the rapid expansion of the scale of higher education, the difficulty of college students' employment occurs accordingly, which inevitably requires college students to change their concept of employment, and broaden their vision to the frontline of the construction of new socialist countryside and entrepreneurship in rural areas. What’s more, COVID-19 has intensified the employment difficulties of university students. In order to expand the employment channels of college students, we should use the sense of responsibility and mission of "family and country feelings" to guide the entrepreneurship and innovation of contemporary college students, so as to deepen our ideological identity. Through the combination of theory and practice, the innovative management of College Students' Entrepreneurship and innovation activities can realize the ideological education of "family and country feelings" in the process of College Students' entrepreneurship. The research purpose of the project is to innovate and construct a new mode of Ideological and political education for college students. It is found that strengthening the education of "family and country feelings" of college students can help them to alleviate the difficulties of employment and entrepreneurship. On the one hand, the orientation of "family and country feelings" can help college students to expand their employment choices; On the other hand, the mode and path construction of "family and country feelings" can better help college students' cognition of mode selection and path development in Entrepreneurship and employment. At the same time, the practice of College Students' Entrepreneurship and employment also helps to enhance the mass communication effect of the concept of "family and country feelings". On the basis of this model construction, further quantitative analysis of the value orientation of "family and country feelings" with the help of questionnaire data, in order to strengthen the economic and social effects of College Students' entrepreneurship.

Reshape the Core Values of Socialism of College Students with the "Four-Confidence" Under the New Situation

Since the reform and opening-up, the Communist Party of China has led the Chinese people to continuously open up new realms in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In 2016, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the People's Republic of China, first put forward the concept of the "four-confidence"(the confidence in the path, theory, system and culture) at the celebration of the 95th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Adhering to the "four-confidence" to guide talent training is an important way to promote the development of China's education. In 2020, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people are united as one, and not only achieve the victory of COVID-19 against the epidemic, but also achieve many victories in the fields of science and technology and people's livelihood. Taking the great achievements of China as an educational opportunity, it is of great importance to unify the theory of the "four-confidence" with the ideological and political work of colleges and universities, and to combine the theory with social practice, so as to establish firm socialist political belief, reshape the education of core values of college students and enhance patriotism. Therefore, we should follow the law of ideological and political education for college students, take ideological identity as the logical starting point, emotional identity as the important way, and political identity as the fundamental direction, so as to cultivate college students to truly become the firm believers and exemplary practitioners of socialist core values.

Determinants of citizens’ attitude to the activities of the President of Ukraine (1994–2020)

The article analyzes the determinants of citizens’ assessment of the activity of the Presidents of Ukraine during 1994–2020. The institution of the Presidency in the mass consciousness of Ukrainians is a reflection of social stratification. Social groups, formed mainly by different identities, evaluate the President's activities through the prism of their own economic situation, ideological identification, ethno-cultural affiliations, ethno-political aspirations and geopolitical orientations. The attitudes of Ukrainians to the head of state are related to electoral cycles, when the most positive assessments of activity are observed in the first year after the election. Using the method of multiple linear regression, it was found that the socio-economic determinant of the financial situation of the family was less tied to the electoral cycles: regardless of the term of office of the President , wealthy citizens evaluate his activities more positively while the poor ones evaluate it more negatively. In the mid-1990s, the attitudes towards the President of Ukraine were also differentiated by a region of residence and a language of communication in the family. However, after 2004 the factor of language communication in the family has reduced its influence on the assessment of the President's actions in favor of the question of the expediency of the Russian language official status. The factor of regional polarization restored its influence during 2003–2013. At the same time, since the end of the 1990s, the factor of geopolitical orientations of citizens has been gaining influence and has become one of the key ones in the following years. The assessment of the activities of Viktor Yushchenko, Viktor Yanukovych and Petro Poroshenko is characterized by clear geopolitical orientations. Instead, the attitudes to the activities of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi in the second year of his term are characterized by a negative attitude of respondents with both left and right ideological views.

When comedy goes to extremes: The influence of ideology and social identity on source liking, credibility, and counterarguing.

When comedy goes to extremes: The influence of ideology and social identity on source liking, credibility, and counterarguing.

Theoretical Research and Practical Application of Ideological and Political Education Construction of Physical Education Curriculum

The important task of higher education is to train qualified builders and reliable successors. Therefore, for education teaching of colleges and universities, in the full attention of the students' professional skills at the same time, efforts to build effective ideological and political education courses, and promote the teaching of ideological and political education course and specialized subject, make the ideological and political education fully throughout and integrated into the entire learning career of university students is one of the effective ways to the current development of colleges and universities. This article uses the research method of documents and materials and logic analysis method, based on the actual situation of colleges and universities sports teaching, ideological and political education of physical education curriculum theory and practice of the construction of the study, and in view of the current sports curriculum construction specific problems in the study of ideological and political education and build a perfect school curriculum system, improve the teachers' ideological consciousness, help students form the ideological identity of important measures, hoping to virtue ethics, to cultivate students to become good comprehensive development-oriented talents with high skills.

Ideological identity of New Urbanism

Ideological identity of New Urbanism

A Pragma- Semantic Model for Ideology Identification in Political Media Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Methodology for the Socio- Cognitive Approach

The paper is a critical discourse analysis of political discourse. It relies on van Dijk’s socio- cognitive approach which employs miscellaneous linguistic methodologies as input to support the interdisciplinarity of the socio- cognitive base. The paper adopts an eclectic model that combines pragmatic and semantic concepts as a methodology for the socio- cognitive approach. The pragma- semantic interface has always produced better holistic, integrated, and objective linguistic inference. The eclectic model combines Sabet & Zhang’s (2015) pragmatic functions of vague expressions (on the pragmatic level) and the semantic macrostructures and the semantic microstructures (on the semantic level). Wodak (2007) emphasises the vitality of the pragmatics in any critical discussion that analyses indirect and inferred linguistic techniques and biased utterances in order to identify and evaluate political discourse . Since vague expressions overlap sometimes in performing pragmatic functions, the pragmatic component of the eclectic model is further supported by the semantic concepts of semantic macrostructure and semantic microstructure. The data is collected from the White House Press Releases (issued in 2014 when ISIS took hold of major Iraqi cities) on Iraq. Such discourse is globally interesting and can shape public opinion about the critical events and realities in Iraq at that time. The analysis has proved the workability of the pragmatic- semantic integration and the paper has come up with a set of concluding remarks. Keywords: critical discourse analysis; semantic macrostructure; semantic microstructure; van Dijk’s socio- cognitive; vagueness; White House Press Release

Negotiation of native linguistic ideology and cultural identities in English learning: a cultural schema perspective

ABSTRACT Despite the proven benefits of combining target language education with corresponding cultural studies, little is known about the impact of infusing and integrating native culture and ideology into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. Few studies focus on how Chinese English language learners (ELLs) negotiate multifaceted identities in English classes in which native oriental culture and philosophical values are deeply embedded. Situated within a tertiary-level English classroom located in southeastern China, this article explores how Chinese ELLs negotiate linguistic ideology and construct cultural identity during their English learning. Qualitative analysis of the data reveals that students experience cultural capital enrichment with an increasing capability to tell Chinese stories worldwide in English, while at the same time experiencing a clash of ideological struggles and multilayered identity construction. The findings have significant implications for understanding the role of cultural capital, linguistic ideology, and identity construction in EFL teaching and learning, and for the global spread of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL).

Examining Trends in Ideological Identification: 1972–2016

Has polarization influenced how members of the public identify with ideological labels? In our analysis of patterns of ideological identification since the 1970s, we demonstrate that there has been an increase in the proportion of the electorate willing to locate themselves on the standard seven-point ideological scale as the parties have polarized. Moreover, consistent with existing evidence of partisan-ideological sorting, our results indicates that most of the increase in identifying with a label is associated with an increase in partisans selecting the ideological label that matches their partisanship. Finally, we show that attitudes toward moral traditionalism are increasingly related to ideological identifications. Our evidence indicates that the broader political system influences how members of the public identify with ideological labels.