The Politics of Libertarian Jews

• In Event: Jews and American Politics

Abstract

This paper develops a new typology of American Jews’ ideological views on domestic policy. After establishing the need for this classification, the paper focuses on an unexpectedly large category: Libertarian Jews.
Surveys show that more Jews are liberal than conservative, but, in the words of Cohen and Liebman (1997), there is no “excessive Jewish liberalism.” They are distinctively liberal on social issues, but not economic issues (see also Greenberg & Wald 2001, Smith 2005, Djupe 2007, and Abrams & Cohen 2016).
Analysis of the 2000-01 NJPS, 2007 NSAJ, American National Election Studies surveys and the General Social Survey shows fewer Jewish political conservatives are Republican than Jewish liberals are Democratic. Many Jewish political conservatives are “conflicted conservatives,” with 30% giving mostly liberal answers on a domestic issues index.
Thus, understanding Jews’ political ideology in the contemporary period requires moving beyond the conventional liberal-conservative ideology continuum. Separating attitudes on government regulation of morality and government regulation of the economy leads to a fourfold classification (Janda, Berry, & Goldman 2002; Swedlow & Wyckoff 2009) that is operationalized in two large-scale surveys of Jews: the 2012 PRRI Jewish Values Survey and the 2013 Pew Study.
The largest category in each study are Progressives who favor government intervention in the economy but not morality. At most 10% of Jews in either study are Traditionalists who favor government intervention in the moral arena but not the economy, and at most 10% are Communitarians who favor government restrictions in both spheres.
The other large category Jews in both studies (about 25%) are Libertarians who desire minimal government intervention, with respect to both the economy and morality. This paper examines these Libertarians, showing how their social demographics, religious nature, and views on Israel differ from other Jews. Their average party identification is in the middle between Democrats and Republicans. These small-government social liberals would be prime targets for the Republican Party if reducing the income gap between the rich and poor becomes a main promise of Democratic politicians. The implications of the emergence of this large ideological group for the future of American Jewry are analyzed.

Author

• Herbert Weisberg, Ohio State University