Political Self-identification Research Articles

Working-Class Culture and Modern Mass Culture before World War I

Problems ofDefinition From its beginnings in the mid-19th century the German workers' movement considered itself to be not only an instrument of economic and political but also of cultural and educational emancipation. Both Ferdinand Lassalle, the founder of the first socialist party in Germany (Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein), and Wilhelm Liebknecht, with August Bebel co-founder of Sozialdemokratische Arbeiter-Partei in the 1860s, incorporated into the official self-definition of the Democratic Party the assertion that the working class was the bearer of modern culture. The working class was, according to this programmatic view, the successor to a bourgeoisie which had abandoned its ideals. Toward the end of the 19th century this notion contributed to the growth of a network of parallel organizations in which masses of workers pursued their own version of socialist commitment. they were mainly interested in singing, gardening, drinking, sports, and other leisure activities, the participation in cultural-educational programs represented an important and prestigious part of their political self-identification. Guenther Roth, in his pioneering study The Democrats in Imperial Germany (1963), called this phenomenon the Social Democratic subculture and juxtaposed it with the of the ruling classes. However, Roth made clear that this juxtaposition pertained more to the proclamation than to the substance: While separate cultural activities were a constitutive part of the Democratic subculture, most of these activities were not different from those of the culture at large. Since many educators within the isolated labor movement attempted to impart as much of recognized Kultur as possible to the workers, this increased the influence of at least parts of the dominant culture among workers, although these components were not necessarily closely related to the central values of the dominant political system.' In other words, while the German working

Ideology and opposition to abortion: trends in public opinion, 1972-1980.

Data from the National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey 1972-1980 are examined to determine the extent to which the conflict over legal abortion has come to be associated, in the structure of public opinion, with broader ideological differences concerning sexuality, feminism, and political liberalissm. Specifically, attitudes toward premarital sex, homosexuality, women's roles, liberal versus conservative political self-identification, and views on government spending policies are examined as possible ideological correlates of position on abortion. Log-linear analysis demonstrates that a clear, significant, and persistent association exists between abortion attitude and each of the other 5 issues, independent of religion, education, or sex of the respondent. Furthermore, there is no evidence of any change from 1972 to 1980 in the strength of the association of abortion attitude with any of the other questions considered, despite the increased polarization and politicization of the abortion issue over the time period studied.

Personal and Social Components of the Protestant Ethic

Summary In an attempt to assess social group correlates of scores on the Mirels-Garrett Protestant Ethic scale, 219 American male and female students were administered the scale, together with items dealing with religious group affiliation, ethnic self-identification, political self-identification, socioeconomic status, and religious beliefs. Results showed that for the American students, Protestant Ethic scores were related significantly to religious self-identification, ethnic background, political self-identification, and religious beliefs. They were not related to socioeconomic status. Results are interpreted as indicating that for the American student sample Protestant Ethic scores are not a “personality variable” but reflect social and cultural background elements.