Political Attitudes Research Articles

Exploring What MilleniGenz Think About Range of Social Issues

It has long been accepted that young adults are more socially and politically liberal than the middle-aged or elderly. It is also accepted that as a generational cohort ages, its views become more conservative. But does this piece of received wisdom apply to MillenigenZ? It is well documented that MillenigenZ are far more liberal on political and social issues than older generations. What is less certain is whether this leftward lean will persist as the MillenigenZ age or whether they will go through the same rightward shift as members of Generation X, the Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation did before them. In this study, we address this question in two ways. First, we examine differences in MillenigenZ’s attitudes on a range of social and political issues between two waves of a survey. Second, we compare the attitudes of the youngest members of the MillenigenZ generational cohort to those of the oldest to see whether there are intra-generational differences. Our findings suggest that MillenigenZ are not getting more conservative as they age and, from the youngest to the oldest, remain remarkably uniform in their left-leaning social and political attitudes. Findings from this study advance our understanding of not only this generation but also how generations change over time.

Ulster versus Éire: Border Narratives in Cinema Newsreels

Ulster versus Éire (1938) was an American March of Time newsreel exploring the complexities of Irish politics on both sides of the border. It came hot on the heels of an earlier film made by the same company, misleadingly titled Irish Republic (1937). The first film had sparked an attempt by the Northern Ireland government to present a propagandised film about the north in response to what was seen to be a favourable depiction of the south. Remarkably, the two films utilised much of the same footage to present two starkly contrasting narratives of ‘two Irelands’. This article explores how representations of the border in cinema newsreels failed to fully reflect the complexities of partition, but very clearly established a partitionist mentality in depicting two separate peoples, north and south of the border. The growth of this partitionist mentality is traced through stories covering the Home Rule movement and partition of Ireland in the 1910s and 1920s, the growing divide between north and south during the economically turbulent 1930s and the pressure placed on Ireland to reconsider its neutral status during the Second World War. Against this backdrop, the newsreels function as both a reflective cultural barometer of shifting perspectives on Ireland throughout the early twentieth century and an active Althusserian ‘Ideological State Apparatus’ in embodying and circulating British and American political attitudes to the border in an 'unofficial' capacity.

Selected peasant issues of the 1930s in the opinions of Warsaw literary magazine columnists (Wiadomości Literackie, Prosto z Mostu, and Pion)

In the press of the interwar period, among the group of Warsaw opinion-forming periodicals, the three largest literary and social weeklies dominated – the liberal Wiadomości Literackie, the pro-Sanacja Pion and the right-wing Prosto z Mostu. These periodicals shaped the artistic tastes and socio-political views of the progressive intelligentsia. They commented on the most important events of literary and social life, including those related to the activity of rural residents. The article contains the results of a comparative analysis of the speeches of critics and columnists of the capital’s literary magazines in the 1930s, relating to selected forms of social, cultural and political activity of peasants (literary and diary works, as well as strike actions). The study deals with the main themes of press discussions and literary critical essays, referring to the constitutive features of peasant literature, the social image of the village (Jalu Kurek’s novel Grypa szaleje w Naprawie), the living conditions of peasants (Pamiętniki chłopów) and their political attitudes (the Great Peasant Uprising). The interpretation of press materials allowed for the formulation of conclusions about the press image of a cruel and hungry peasant, culturally excluded, and deprived of a chance to change his living conditions. The demands for the social advancement of peasants put forward by columnists of Warsaw magazines were mostly declarative and conservative.

“Having leapt never look back”: Who stays with Russia and how are imports redistributed?

We examine the division of countries according to their political attitude towards Russia after the launch of a special military operation in Ukraine and the introduction of large-scale sanctions, and illustrate the importance of sanctions and political attitude to Russia for countries’ exports there with the available statistical data. The countries are clustered by their participation in sanctions pressure on Russia and voting on six UN resolutions condemning Russia’s actions. Except for hostile countries, we distinguish three groups of friendly countries — “cautious” (voting for UN resolutions), “wavering” (non-systematic voting), and “sympathetic” (voting against resolutions or ignoring them). According to mirror data on foreign trade with Russia, most countries which increased their exports to Russia in 2022 belong to the “sympathizers” group. Relying on the evidence from the EU and China, we demonstrate that imports of sanctioned goods are redistributed more actively than other imports. We list major products which imports were redistributed successfully or unsuccessfully.

The Factors that Shape Chinese Officials’ Political Attitudes: An Experimental Intergenerational Approach

The Factors that Shape Chinese Officials’ Political Attitudes: An Experimental Intergenerational Approach

Religion, Sexuality Politics, and the Transformation of Latin American Electorates

AbstractRight-wing candidates have rallied against same-sex marriage, abortion, and ‘gender ideology’ in several recent Latin American elections, attracting socially conservative voters. Yet, these issues are largely irrelevant to voting decisions in other parts of the region. Drawing on theories explaining partisan shifts in the US and Europe, we argue that elite and social movement debates on sexuality politics create conditions for electoral realignment. When politicians take polarized positions on newly salient ‘culture war’ issues, the masses’ voting behaviour shifts. Using region-wide multilevel analysis of the AmericasBarometer and Latinobarómetro and a conjoint experiment in Brazil, Chile, and Peru, we demonstrate that the rising salience of sexuality politics creates new electoral cleavages, magnifying the electoral impact of religion and sexuality politics attitudes and shrinking the impact of economic views. Whereas scholarship on advanced democracies posits the centrality of partisanship, our findings indicate that sexuality politics prompts realignments even in weak party systems.

Respondents with more extreme views show moderation of opinions in multi-year surveys in the USA and the Netherlands

People with extreme political attitudes are often assumed to be more resistant to change than moderates. If this assumption is true, extreme attitudes would ossify and continuously aggravate intergroup conflict and polarization. To test this assumption of stubborn extremists, we use large-scale panel surveys of attitudes towards policy issues and general ideologies across up to 13 years (combined N = 16,238). By tracking the same people across multi-year periods, we are able to ascertain whether extreme attitude holders exhibit less change in policy attitudes than moderates. The results revealed that extreme attitude holders are more likely to change their attitudes than moderates across various policy issues and general ideologies, and tend to directionally moderate over time. A final experiment finds that lay people incorrectly believe that extreme attitudes holders are more resistant to change, contrary to the results found here. We discuss the implications of this finding for understanding the evolution of extreme attitude holders, the misperception of ideological and policy differences, and the role of inaccurate out-group perceptions in shaping polarization and intergroup conflict.

Pathway to terrorist behaviors: The role of childhood experiences, personality traits, and ideological motivations in a sample of Iraqi prisoners.

Radicalization to terrorism is a multifaceted process with no single theory or approach to explain it. Although research has focused on understanding the process, there is still a dearth of studies that examine an empirically driven pathway to terrorism behavior. This study examines a cross-sectional sample of incarcerated men convicted of terrorism in Iraq (N = 160). A questionnaire-guided interview included adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), conduct disorder (CD), antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), religious and political ideology, views about causes of terrorism, and the severity of terrorist acts. Path analysis was employed to examine the relationships between these factors and to identify the model with the best fit. After adjusting for age, employment, and location, results indicated that ACEs positively impacted CD, ASPD, religious guidance, and terrorism attitudes. ASPD positively affected political commitment and terrorism attitudes, but inversely affected current religious commitment. Political commitment inversely influenced terrorism attitudes. Religious commitment positively influenced the prioritization of religion in life, which subsequently impacted terrorism attitudes and behavior severity. Additionally, attitudes toward terrorism directly affected the severity of terrorism behavior. All paths in the final model were statistically significant at p < 0.05. Although these findings may be limited in generalizability due to the unique sample, results support the complex and interdependent nature of childhood and adult experiences on the development of both terrorism attitudes and the severity of terrorism behavior.

Age and Party Choice: Generational Shift in India

India is in the throes of a massive demographic turn. People born and brought up after 1986 constitute the bulk of the population. Studies elsewhere show that generational replacement transforms societies and can play a key role in changing the political attitudes and behaviour of the electorate. Over the last few general elections the Indian National Congress has witnessed a steady decline in support, while the Bharatiya Janata Party has seen a surge in support. This article examines whether the decline of the Congress party is linked to a demographic shift that is taking place. The study demonstrates that generations as socio-historical space helps us nuance party-choice explanations.

Who Is Curating My Political Feed? Characterizing Political Exposure of Registered U.S. Voters on Twitter

Social media platforms offer people a variety of options to engage with politics, from directly following elected officials to discussing politics with social peers. Despite major advances in recent research on online political exposure through the lens of selective exposure, filter bubbles, and ideological echo chambers, little is known about the fundamental questions of what types of political actors people are exposed to on social media, and how these distinctive types vary across sociodemographic groups. We address this gap in the literature by analyzing unique panel data on more than 600,000 registered U.S. voters on Twitter during the 2020 U.S. Presidential campaign. We analyze this dataset to identify distinct types of political consumers and how they vary in terms of sociodemographics. Our findings suggest that the bulk of the population has a meaningful share of political content available from social peers, that the majority of this content originates from traditional sources of political information (media organizations, journalists, and politicians), and that media organizations are the dominant and direct source of political information on Twitter for nearly 20% of the sample population. These results advance our understanding of the way citizens learn about politics in new media and pave the way for next-step research to identify the causal effect of exposure to distinct curators of political content on individuals’ political attitudes and political behavior.

Black Women Educators’ Activism: The Evolution of a Black Feminist Pedagogy

Exploring the historical narrative of activism among black American women offers valuable insights into their significant role in advocating for equal and high-quality educational opportunities within their community. It unveils their cultural and political acumen, attitudes, and dedication, which they extend into the realm of teaching. Their moral philosophies and sense of purpose have been instrumental in the creation of a black feminist pedagogy that has evolved within the frame of black women’s resistance to oppression and the ensuing battle for collective survival and institutional change (Collins, 1990).

Exceptional Times for an Exceptional People: How the Prosperity Gospel, Christian Nationalism, and Race Affect Americans’ Economic Attitudes and Behavior

Abstract How does identifying with the Prosperity Gospel or as a Christian Nationalist affect political attitudes? Religion has long been a key factor in explaining public opinion, partisanship, and political ideology, though recently scholars have turned to these two theological worldviews to explain support for Donald Trump, conservative political activism, and political extremism. But these theological identities have varying effects based on race, often cutting against the direct effects of race and religion on politics. Further, while scholars have analyzed these identities on attitudes such as immigration, social/moral policies, and foreign policy, less attention has been paid to the relationship with attitudes toward spending, debt, and the economy. This paper uses two national surveys to connect the Prosperity Gospel and Christian Nationalism with race in predicting economic values and beliefs. In general, both are found to predict economic conservatism, though mostly among whites, while Prosperity Gospel adherence decreases personal economic conservatism. Both theological identities also help to explain agreement with nationalist and populist policies, helping to make sense of the relationship between (white) Christianity and support for Donald Trump.

Die Milieukoalition des Rechtspopulismus. Kombinationen politischer Einstellungen innerhalb des potenziellen Elektorats der AfD

ZusammenfassungObwohl in den letzten Jahren viel zu den Charakteristika des AfD-Elektorats geforscht wurde, gibt es bisher nur wenige Erkenntnisse darüber, inwiefern unterschiedliche soziale Gruppen und Milieus aus jeweils unterschiedlichen Motiven zur AfD neigen. Da es der AfD erfolgreich gelingt, sowohl Angehörige der Arbeiterklasse als auch Teile der Mittelklasse für sich zu mobilisieren, stellt sich die Frage, wie diese Koalition an AfD-Sympathisantinnen aus unterschiedlichen Klassenlagen zustande kommt und erklärt werden kann. In dem Beitrag wird mit Daten des ALLBUS 2018 untersucht, inwiefern sich die AfD-freundlichen Milieus innerhalb der Arbeiter- und der Mittelklasse in ihren Einstellungsprofilen zu vier politischen Konfliktdimensionen (Umverteilung, Migration, individuelle Freiheitsrechte und Leistungsethos) sowohl vom nicht-AfD-affinen Teil ihrer jeweiligen Klasse als auch voneinander unterscheiden. Anhand von Regressions- und Clusteranalysen kann gezeigt werden, dass der mit der AfD sympathisierende Teil der Arbeiterklasse ein national-solidarisches Weltbild aufweist und Gleichheitsansprüche einfordert, während in dem mit der AfD sympathisierenden Teil der Mittelklasse regressive Normalitätsvorstellungen vorherrschen und die AfD als Verteidigerin bestehender Hierarchien und Privilegien angesehen wird. Basierend auf diesen Ergebnissen wird abschließend diskutiert, wie es der AfD gelingt, durch eine Anrufung dieser Einstellungsmuster Milieus mit divergierenden ökonomischen Interessen für sich zu mobilisieren.

The moderating role of democratic governance in the association between personal values and political ideologies

AbstractThis analysis examined whether commonly assumed associations between personal values and political attitudes within countries varied worldwide by the level of democratic governance. In less democratic countries, people may have less exposure to or engagement with value expression through political party affiliation and experience less motivation to express values through political attitudes. Therefore, in such countries, the commonly assumed association of personal values typically labeled “conservative” (e.g., tradition) or “liberal” (e.g., universalism) with right‐ or left‐wing political ideologies could be weaker. Furthermore, less democratic governments are more likely to be perceived as a deciding presence in economic outcomes than the people's or the market's will, which could alter the degree to which right‐wing economic attitudes toward free markets and private enterprise are associated with conservative values. Responses to the World Value Survey across 60 countries were largely consistent with these moderation effects when operationalizing democratic governance using both more objective, structural, and subjective, perceptual metrics. In less democratic countries, conservation‐oriented personal values were less positively associated with broad right‐wing political identification and self‐transcendence‐oriented values less positively associated with broad left‐wing political identification. In less democratic countries, conservation‐oriented values were more negatively associated with right‐wing economic attitudes.

Exploring the Audience of Alternative News Media: Trust, Reflexivity, and Political Attitudes in the Czech Republic

ABSTRACT This study explores the audiences of Czech alternative news media (ANM) and seeks the predictors for its use. It examines the relationship between ANM usage and trust in mainstream media, media reflexivity, political interest, political attitudes that indicate the liberal-conservative divide, and political antagonism. Adopting an audience-centered approach, the study identifies ANM users through their self-identification based on perceived ANM news sources. Additionally, it verifies the robustness of this approach by considering a spectrum of alternative-to-mainstream news sources. The findings reveal that the reception of Czech ANM is associated with lower trust in professional mainstream media and higher political interest. Moreover, self-identification-based measures show links with internet usage and media reflexivity, while the second model found weak effects for one’s attitude to the European Union and political antagonism. The study discusses the differences between the approaches and the implications of both measurements.

Examining the Crime-Conflict Distinction: Victimization and Political System Support in Colombia

How do crime and conflict compare in relation to victims’ support for their political system? Latin American Politics scholarship has emphasized the distinct motivations of criminal and political violence. However, victims might not distinguish meaningfully between these types of insecurity. Scholars have used surveys extensively to understand crime victimization's consequences, but we know less about conflict victimization's relationship with political attitudes. Analyzing public opinion surveys from Colombia (2012–2018), we find that crime and conflict victimization share a minimal relationship with system support at the national level. In conflict zones, however, victimization from political violence corresponds negatively with system support. Decreased confidence in security forces may be the explanation. Our findings have three implications: scholars risk overemphasizing the crime-conflict distinction without micro-level insight; analyzing public opinion in areas beyond state control is necessary to build such knowledge; and, amidst acute insecurity, attention to victims has systemic importance.

‘Those Ridiculous Monks’

Abstract During the Qing Dynasty (1636–1911), Chosŏn Korean tributary envoys regularly sent to Beijing normally stopped for a few days en route in Mukden (Shenyang), the Qing’s secondary capital and the largest city in Manchuria. There they visited one of the local attractions, royal Tibetan Buddhist temples, particularly the Shishengsi, the largest monastery in the city. What drew the envoys to the royal temples? How did they interact with the Mongol lamas? What was their first impression of Tibetan Buddhism – a religion at once familiar and foreign to them? Using extensive records left by the Korean envoys (Yŏnhaengnok), this paper examines the under-studied historical encounter between Korean literati and Tibetan Buddhism. Although not always consistent, the understanding and misunderstanding that the Koreans had with the religion, I argue, reflects their rather complex political and cultural attitudes towards the Qing – a regime that, in the eyes of the Koreans, simultaneously represented China and non-China. The Manchu capital, Mukden, which was closely linked with both Beijing and the Inner Asian frontiers, provided a meeting ground for different ethnic groups, cultures and values in the late Imperial period. The episode demonstrates an initial interaction between East Asia and Inner Asia. Furthermore, by examining how information about Qing Inner Asian politics was filtered and (mis)understood by Koreans, the paper challenges the popular myth that more information naturally leads to comprehensive knowledge.

Populist partner: the influence of partner characteristics on populist radical right voting

Abstract In this study, the role of the partner’s self-assessed socio-economic status and political attitudes on populist radical right voting is studied. We made use of a survey among the adult Dutch population (the LISS panel), with information on the self-assessed occupational class, education and political preferences of both partners in cohabiting heterosexual couples. Our results show that, next to the more often found effect of one’s own socio-economic status, the lower the self-assessed occupational class and educational level of the partner, the more likely one is to vote for the PVV, a Dutch populist radical right party. Whereas previous literature has shown that partner’s socio-economic status affects voting behaviour through economic policy preferences, we show the partner’s self-assessed position, for both men and women, is also relevant in explaining behaviour via other political attitudes, such as anti-immigration views. Regardless of one’s own political attitudes, the attitudes of the partner affect one’s likelihood to vote for the populist radical right. With this study, we thus show that including partner characteristics provides further insight into the role of occupation, education, gender, and political attitudes in populist radical right voting, providing evidence of the importance of people’s strong ties in voting behaviour outcomes.

Shift in Public Opinion Formations on Defense, Energy, and Migration: The Case of Russia’s War Against Ukraine

Abstract Russia’s war on Ukraine came as a shock to the Western world. In this context, the study of public opinion change is crucial for understanding the dynamics of political attitudes and societal polarization. Using Germany as an exemplary case study, we investigate how public opinion changed regarding defense, energy supply, and migration as three crucial policy domains in the first year of the war. Using a representative eight-wave online panel survey study, we map attitudes in the general population and among supporters of different parties, tracing their development over time. Our analyses lead to two key insights: First, attitudes toward defense, energy supply, and migration remained remarkably stable over time. Second, we found a high degree of consensus across the partisan spectrum. Only the supporters of the far-right populist party systematically diverged from the general population, and this discrepancy grew larger over time. Our findings contribute significantly to the understanding of political attitude formation and processes of social polarization along cleavages in times of abrupt societal change.

Implementasi Pendidikan Karakter Jepang Dalam Perspektif Islam Di Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 2 Kota Kediri

This research contains the process of implementing Japanese character education at MAN 2 Kediri City. The type of research used in this research is qualitative research. The information collection technique in this research is through observation, interviews and documentation. The results of this research prove that some MAN 2 Kediri City students have not implemented their character education in their daily life at school. Some other students have implemented their character education, such as coming to school on time, regularly attending group prayers, having a respectful and polite attitude towards teachers or older people. The characters possessed by each student are an attitude of never giving up, being able to work well with friends, and having a high enthusiasm for learning which can be proven when the students will take part in high school/MA and national level competitions. The students are always enthusiastic about practicing from the time the school bell rings until the school bell rings. Globally, it can be said that MAN 2 Kediri City students have superior personalities so they are able to become the nation's next generation of quality.