Creating Human Development Theories: A Guide for the Social Sciences and Humanities by R. Murray Thomas & Paul M. Sniderman

Author:R. Murray Thomas & Paul M. Sniderman [Thomas, R. Murray & Sniderman, Paul M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Work, Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781440831980
Google: rJE2ngEACAAJ
Goodreads: 18792474
Publisher: Praeger
Published: 2014-01-15T07:54:23+00:00

Ideology and Anti-immigration Politics: Three Models

To map the structure of the party system, we have developed measures of the two primary ideological dimensions—economic redistribution and libertarian-authoritarian.13 As far as possible, we have followed the examples of previous studies in constructing measures of the economic redistribution and libertarian-authoritarian dimensions.14 To convey the flavor of the measure, here are two illustrations. An indicator of an authoritarian outlook is agreement with the statement that “violent crimes ought to be punished much harder than is currently the case.” An indicator of a left-wing position on the economic redistribution dimension is the view that “high incomes should be taxed more than is currently the case.” All measures are quite similar but not necessarily identical to measures in previous studies. It may be thought that the points of difference present a problem, yet it is just the other way around. Insofar as different measures of the same constructs yield the same results, a higher than ordinary degree of confidence in our findings is warranted.

The standard model of ideology provides a well-grounded explanatory platform for the analysis of electoral politics in general and anti-immigration politics in particular. According to the standard model, the two ideological dimensions structuring contemporary politics—economic redistribution and libertarian-authoritarian—are independent of one another.15 Which ideological dimension is bound up with anti-immigration politics?

The question answers itself, apparently. The farther to the right that voters are on the libertarian-authoritarian dimension, the more importance they are likely to place on tradition, conformity, and obedience to established authority; the more circumscribed the range of their intellectual and aesthetic experience is likely to be; and as one consequence, the more rigid and stereotypical their thinking is likely to be.16 Moreover, the farther to the right that voters are on the libertarian-authoritarian dimension, the more likely many of their sentiments about politics will be charged with hostility and contempt.17 These two lines of argument—one cognitive and the other affective—are complementary, not competitive. The inference to draw from both is as plain as the nose on your face. The more authoritarian voters are in their political values, the more hostile to immigration and immigrants they are likely to be.

Granting this, a corollary follows from the geometry of two-dimensional structures. To say that the two dimensions of left-right are orthogonal is to assert that they are unrelated to one another. If the two dimensions are indeed independent of one another, then the centrality of the libertarian-authoritarian implies the irrelevance of the economic redistribution one. This reasoning has the support of over a decade of research across western Europe. Antipathy to immigrants, it has been repeatedly shown, is tied up with positions on the libertarian-authoritarian dimension and scarcely, if at all, attached to positions on the economic redistribution dimension.18 Accordingly, we call this the established model of the ideological bases of anti-immigration politics.

The model is formally summarized in equation 4.1,

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