The End of "Innocence"? Three New Measures of Political Issue Alignment Among the American Public

• In Event: 2454 - Political Polarization

Abstract

In a 1964 study, Philip Converse famously concluded that the average American was “ideologically innocent,” holding an inconsistent and flexible mix of political opinions. Fifty years later, is this still the case? Or has the general public become more “polarized” on political issues?

We apply three distinct statistical methods to decades of data from the General Social Survey, and find that: (1) the public is becoming more aligned and oppositional along party lines; and (2) such alignment increases in dense urban areas and with higher levels of education. But this process has been slow, weak, and unable to fully explain the animosity and political gridlock evident in the country.

We suggest that future studies of polarization look beyond “the issues,” and focus on cultural factors that may be playing a larger role than policy disagreement.

Authors

• Nick Rogers, State University of New York-Stony Brook

• Andrew Hargrove, State University of New York-Stony Brook

• Jason Jeffrey Jones, State University of New York-Stony Brook