Hostname: page-component-669899f699-vbsjw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-03T01:34:31.021Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Self-Interest vs. Symbolic Politics in Policy Attitudes and Presidential Voting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

David O. Sears ,
Richard R. Lau ,
Tom R. Tyler  and
Harris M. Allen Jr.
David O. Sears
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Richard R. Lau
Affiliation:
Carnegie-Mellon University
Tom R. Tyler
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
Harris M. Allen Jr.
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article contrasts short-term self-interest and longstanding symbolic attitudes as determinants of (1) voters' attitudes toward government policy on four controversial issues (unemployment, national health insurance, busing, and law and order), and (2) issue voting concerning those policy areas. In general, we found the various self-interest measures to have very little effect in determining either policy preferences or voting behavior. In contrast, symbolic attitudes (liberal or conservative ideology, party identification, and racial prejudice) had major effects. Nor did self-interest play much of a role in creating “issue publics” that were particularly attentive to, informed about, or constrained in their attitudes about these specific policy issues. Conditions that might facilitate more self-interested political attitudes, specifically having privatistic (rather than public-regarding) personal values, perceiving the policy area as a major national problem, being high in political sophistication, perceiving the government as responsive, or having a sense of political efficacy, were also explored, but had no effect. The possibility that some long-term self-interest might be reflected in either group membership or in symbolic attitudes themselves is examined. While such possibilities cannot be definitively rejected, problems with interpreting standard demographic findings as self-interest effects are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , September 1980 , pp. 670 - 684
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Allen, Harris M. Jr., and Sears, David O. (1979). “Against Them or for Me: Community Impact Evaluations.” In Datta, L. and Perloff, R. (eds.), Improving Evaluations. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, pp. 171–75.Google Scholar
Bauer, Raymond A., de S. Pool, Ithiel, and Dexter, Lewis A. (1963). American Business and Public Policy. New York: Atherton.Google Scholar
Bradley, Gifford W. (1978). “Self-serving Biases in the Attribution Process: A Reexamination of the Fact or Fiction Question.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 36: 56–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, Richard A., and Sniderman, Paul M. (1977). “From Life Space to Polling Place: The Relevance of Personal Concerns for Voting Behavior.” British Journal of Political Science 7: 337–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Converse, Philip E. (1975). “Public Opinion and Voting Behavior.” In Greenstein, Fred I. and Polsby, Nelson W. (eds.), Handbook of Political Science, Vol. 4. Reading: Addison-Wesley, pp. 75–170.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony (1957). An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper-Row.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris P. (1978). “Short and Long-term Effects of Economic Conditions on Individual Voting Decisions.” Social Science Working Paper 244. California Institute of Technology (December).Google Scholar
Gatlin, D. S., Giles, M. W., and Cataldo, E. F. (1978). “Policy Support Within a Target Group: The Case of School Desegregation.” American Political Science Review 72: 985–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, V. O. Jr. (1966). The Responsible Electorate. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Kiewiet, D. Roderick (1979). “Economic Grievances and Political Behavior: The Role of Personal Discontents and Collective Judgments in Congressional Voting.” American Journal of Political Science 23: 495–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Sears, David O. (1980). “Prejudice and Politics: Symbolic Racism versus Racial Threats to the Good Life.” Unpublished manuscript, Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Kramer, Gerald H. (1971). “Short-term Fluctuations in U.S. Voting Behavior, 1896–1964.” American Political Science Review 65: 131–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, Robert E. (1962). Political Ideology: Why the American Common Man Believes What He Does. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Lau, Richard R., Brown, Thad A., and Sears, David O. (1978). “Self-interest and Civilians' Attitudes Toward the War in Vietnam.” Public Opinion Quarterly 42: 464–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, Seymour M. (1960). Political Man. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.Google Scholar
McClosky, Herbert (1959). “Conservatism and Personality.” The American Political Science Review 52: 27–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Arthur H., Miller, Warren E., Raine, Alden S., and Brown, Thad A. (1976). “A Majority Party in Disarray: Policy Polarization in the 1972 Election.” The American Political Science Review 70: 753–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nie, Norman H., Verba, Sidney, and Petrocik, John (1976). The Changing American Voter. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Page, Benjamin I. (1977). “Elections and Social Choice: The State of the Evidence.” American Journal of Political Science 21: 639–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riker, William H., and Ordeshook, Peter C. (1973). An Introduction to Positive Political Theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Runciman, W. G. (1966). Relative Deprivation and Social Justice. London: Rutledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Schlozman, Kay L., and Verba, Sidney (1979). Injury to Insult: Unemployment, Class, and Political Response. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schuman, Howard, and Johnson, M. P. (1976). “Attitudes and Behavior.” Annual Review of Sociology 2: 161–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, David O. (1975). “Political Socialization.” In Greenstein, Fred I. and Polsby, Nelson W. (eds.), Handbook of Political Science: Vol. 2, Micropoliticat Theory. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, pp. 96–136.Google Scholar
Sears, David O. (1978). “The Jarvis Amendment: Self-interest or Symbolic Politics?” Unpublished manuscript, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Sears, David O. (1980). “Life Stage Effects upon Attitude Change, Especially among the Elderly.” Prepared for Workshop on the Elderly of the Future, Committee on Aging, National Research Council.Google Scholar
Sears, David O., Hensler, Carl P., and Speer, Leslie K. (1979). “Whites' Opposition to ‘Busing’: Self-interest or Symbolic Politics.” American Political Science Review 73: 369–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, David O., Tyler, Tom R., Citrin, Jack, and Kinder, Donald R. (1978). “Political System Support and Public Response to the Energy Crisis.” American Journal of Political Science 22: 56–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tufte, Edward R. (1978). Political Control of the Economy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vanneman, Reeve D., and Pettigrew, Thomas F. (1972). “Race and Relative Deprivation in the Urban United States.” Race 13: 461–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, James Q., and Banfield, Edward C. (1971). “Political Ethos Revisited.” American Political Science Review 65: 1048–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.