Social Identity As A Motivating Factor

Political socialization is “the way in which individuals acquire the information, beliefs, attitudes and values that help them comprehend the operations of the American political system” (Socialization, Slide 2). In short, this is how Americans get their political knowledge from those four sources. The family plays the biggest role in the knowledge of an individual. Children typically spend the most time with their parents and they learn their parental attitudes. This shapes later of how they will think politically in life. Schools teach us the citizenship skills and democratic norms. Some of these political norms include symbols like pictures of American heroes or the American flag (Erikson and Tedin, 132). Schools shape how the person will use these skills and norms in life. During pre-adult socialization, political knowledge and support for democratic values is very weak among the youth. Only fifty-two percent are aware of religious freedom, while fifty percent say that the government can censor the Internet (Socialization, Slide 7). Another reason of why some citizens would lack political knowledge is according to the minimal effects model. This model believes that voters only pay attention to candidates that they

I have not had much interest in politics until recently. Before last year, I did not care for anything related to politics; I thought that it was all boring and had little to no affect on me on a personal level. I am more interested in politics nowadays. I know better now that it does affect me and I should care about it. I had learned about the concepts of political socialization, party identification, political tolerance, political trust, political efficacy in government class and how they affect my political beliefs. My personal political belief has been shaped into what it is today and is still being shaped because of those six concepts.

As society rapidly changes with an influx of new ideas and issues, studying the college educated and those who are not will help evaluate behaviors and attitudes towards the government, ultimately, clearing the way to adaption into a modern society that perhaps offer remedies of educational and voting discrepancies or even close the gaps between political ideology or identification. Hence, this paper proposes the research question: How does education level influence political party identification.

Political socialization begins early on in life and is an ongoing process affecting individuals throughout. It is how people eventually identify personal beliefs and expectations in American politics. These political views can include our level of patriotism, faith in the democratic system, standards by which we hold governing bodies, and opinions regarding public policies. From the playground to the classroom, the office to the dinner table, much of our lives affect our political opinions. The most easily identified agents of this are family, schooling, peers, mass media, political parties and religious influences. Furthermore, these means indoctrinate us in the political society through four basic

However, there is a competing explanation of the Party Polarization phenomena. These political scientists believe that the reason there is Party Polarization in our culture is not because of the way the districts are drawn, but is due to the way people organize themselves. Individuals are “segregating themselves by choosing to live in liberal or conservative geographical areas” without very much influence (372). This behavior is called self-

Abramowitz’s argument that the American electorate have become more polarized and that the moderate center is disappearing is more of a quantitative argument than a qualitative one. Based on election studies and exit polls, Abramowitz’ observations include the correlation between engagement, party identification, religious and social groups, ideological realignment, and education on the idealization and polarization of the public. Contrary to Fiorina, “there is no disconnect between the political elite and the American people. Polarization in Washington reflects polarization within the public, especially within the politically engaged segment of the public” (Abramowitz 2010, x). According to the ANES (American National Election Studies), the

“The argument that polarization in America is almost entirely an elite phenomenon appears to be contradicted by a large body of research by political scientists on recent trends in American public opinion. While there have been relatively few studies directly addressing Fiorina’s evidence and a growing body of research indicates that political and cultural divisions within the American public have deepened considerably since the 1970s. These studies have found that the political beliefs of Democratic and Republican voters have become much more distinctive over the past 30 years” (Abramowitz and Saunders

The first examined effect was political action as a function of instrumental concerns such as strongly held stances on issues and contrasted their effects with that of expressive partisan identity. Secondly, the degree to which action-oriented political emotions, such as anger and enthusiasm, are instrumental or expressive in nature was examined. The studies looked at how much political anger is driven instrumentally by threats to ideology and issue positions or whether it reflects a threat to someone’s party status, making it expressive. Lastly, the studies examined the degree to which political enthusiasm is driven by similar competing forces: the likely success of one’s ideology and issue positions or promised electoral victory and enhanced party

Partisan identification refers to the political party with which an individual identifies and political socialization can be defined as the process by which people form their ideas about politics (Hershey 2016, pg. 127). Both of these terms are important for understanding how individuals identify with the parties they do and how in doing so can affect both the perception of the candidate and the level of participation.

James Campbell’s book is a political masterpiece that outlines how American voters are divided across the United States. Campbell provides a totally new perspective on the polarization with a historically context on how and why voters are politically divided. Campbell’s argument may seem indirect, but he provides circumstantial evidence and empirical evidence to support his claim of polarization. Polarized is significant to understanding American polarization, and surprisingly other books fail in comparison due to their lack of empirical evidence. Campbell’s book was written in 2016 which provides updated information that can help explain the cause of 2018 election polarization among voters.

Studies conclude that citizens who tend to classify themselves as either conservative or liberal tend to have opposing political and policy views (p. 571). This means that social opinions alone does not have a significant or resilient influence in elite or mass polarization. This leads us to our next variable, partisan elections.

Those who identify as either a Democrat or Republican view the other party through a negative lens. For example, Badger and Choksi concluded that individuals who affiliated with one of the two parties perceive that the “opposing party isn’t just misguided,

Another counterpoint that can be made is that party identification is amplified during election years, which in turn affects partisan vote that would otherwise dissipate in midterm or off-election years. However, Gallup Polls surveys, conducted face-to-face from 1953 to 1995, provided “no evidence that party identification surges during presidential [or off] election years”. These surveys in both the short and long term attests to the fact that party identification is extremely stable for voters, regardless of the presence of a presidential election year. While it may be possible that partisans vote against their own party, the probability of partisans voting for their party is extremely high. Consequently, if partisan labels do not shift

There are factors which do not influence party identity and which are independent on social grouping or cultural values. For several decades there have been little change at both aggregate and individual level on party identification. The state of economy and performance of the president does not change or determine party loyalty. However, party loyalties have a powerful influence on citizens' positions in key issues and voting decisions. The most important notion is that party identification is based mainly on identification with social grouping rather than on evaluation of party's ideology or policy. People ask themselves two questions: "What kind of social groups comes to my mind when I think about Republicans, Independents and Democrats? Which group best describes me?"

Many political science researchers study the forces that drive the vote. One of the earliest, and most well known, books about election studies is The American Voter. Written in 1960, the book tries to explain a model that describes what drives Americans to vote the way they do. The model suggests that social factors determine ones party identification, which determines one's issue positions and evaluation of candidate's characteristics. These forces all work together to determine how one will vote. This model may or may not still hold true today, as political researchers are not in agreement as to what exactly drives the vote. One thing that does remain true, however, is that factors such as social groups, party identification, issues,