Conceptualizing Class: Importance & Stability of Class-based Policy Preferences

• In Event: Conceptualizing and Measuring Social Class in the United States

Abstract

There is a debate in the literature about how best to measure class. But objective measures of class may be less important for policy preferences and political behavior than subjective class identification. In this paper we consider how objective measures of class (education, income and occupation) are associated with subjective class identification, and how this association varies across individuals using longitudinal data from the ANES and GSS surveys. After demonstrating the differences in how closely individual objective class measures are associated with subjective class, we test several explanations for how subjective class identity originates. We argue that, in addition to standard measures of objective class, a number of individual and contextual factors likely shape perceptions of one’s class status. Individual characteristics like political values and racial attitudes, as well as contextual factors like the political issue agenda and economic circumstances, can all influence how individuals develop their subjective class identities.

Authors

• Christopher M. Witko, Pennsylvania State University

• William W. Franko, West Virginia University