Social Class, Occupational Stereotypes, and Policy Preferences

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

Abstract

Social class may be a less powerful determinant of political behavior in the United States than in other advanced industrialized democracies. Or it may be the case that class is inconsistently understood in American political discourse. The conceptual clarity of class is important for understanding policy preferences generally, and support for unions specifically. I investigate how to conceptualize class, and how it might be shaped by membership in labor unions. Using an original survey experiment, proprietary data from organized labor, as well as manual-coding of the CCES, I look at how occupation influences political behavior. Organized labor, while associated with the Democratic Party in electoral politics, is not made up entirely of Democrats. Instead, clusters of partisans exist within certain occupations, and are less present in others. When policies are associated with particular occupations, the stereotypes around who does a certain type of work affect levels of policy support. It is not unionization as a policy per se, but the understanding that groups we dislike might receive some benefit. Overall, occupation provides a more nuanced way to talk about variation in political preferences, even though questions about occupation are less common than questions about education or income.

Author

• Laura C. Bucci, Saint Joseph's University