Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Kevin Vallier
Keyword(s):  
Social Trust ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
General Argument ◽  
Institutional Structures

This introduction reviews the challenges posed by falling social and political trust and increasing political polarization, especially in the United States. In particular, falling trust and increasing political conflict raises the question of whether political life is invariably a struggle for victory between groups with incompatible goals and principles. The introduction frames the problem in terms of the need to determine which institutional structures can sustain social trust between persons with diverse viewpoints and values. It then outlines the general argument of the book, which is that liberal institutions, political systems marked by extensive, equal constitutional rights and liberties, have the unique capacity to sustain social trust in conflicted times.

scholarly journals Exposure to Common Enemies can Increase Political Polarization: Evidence from a Cooperation Experiment with Automated Partisans

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eaman Jahani ◽  
Natalie McDaniel Gallagher ◽  
Friedolin Merhout ◽  
Nicolo Cavalli ◽  
Douglas Guilbeault ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Computational Social Science ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Group Conflict ◽  
Opposing Party ◽  
Common Enemy

Longstanding theory indicates the threat of a common enemy can mitigate conflict between members of rival groups. We tested this hypothesis in a pre-registered experiment where 1,670 Republicans and Democrats in the United States were asked to complete a collaborative online task with an automated agent or “bot” that was labelled as a member of the opposing party. Prior to this task, we exposed respondents to primes about a) a common enemy (involving threats from Iran, China, and Russia); b) a patriotic event; or c) a neutral, apolitical prime. Though we observed no significant differences in the behavior of Democrats as a result of these primes, we found that Republicans—and particularly those with very strong conservative views—were significantly less likely to cooperate with Democrats when primed about a common enemy. We also observed lower rates of cooperation among Republicans who participated in our study during the 2020 Iran crisis, which occurred in the middle of our fieldwork. These findings indicate common enemies may not reduce inter-group conflict in highly polarized societies, and contribute to a growing number of studies that find evidence of asymmetric political polarization. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for research in social psychology, political conflict, and the rapidly expanding field of computational social science.

Party Ideology in America: The National Republican Chapter, 1828–1924

1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gerring
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Group ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Party Ideology

Conventional wisdom states that where ideas and values have mattered in American political life they have usually been the product of a single, overarching political culture. The United States, it is argued, has had political conflict but not ideological conflict. Perhaps nowhere is this premise more noticeable than in the study of political parties. According to Du-verger, “[T]he two parties are rival teams, one occupying office, the other seeking to dislodge it. It is a struggle between the ins and the outs, which never becomes fanatical, and creates no deep cleavage in the country.” Everett Carll Ladd writes, “[T]he need to seek support within an overarching ideological consensus, has historically imposed certain characteristics on the major American parties – social group inclusiveness, accommodationism, a ‘non-ideological’ stance vis-a-vis their principal opponents (which, after all, accept the same ideology).”

Party Reform as Failed Democratic Renewal in the United States, 1968–1972

1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Plotke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Party Organization ◽  
Subsequent Discussion ◽  
Made In

Between 1968 and 1972, with political conflict in America unusually high, major changes were made in rules for consituting Democratic national conventions and selecting Democratic candidates. Basic issues about the practical meaning of democratic commitments were sharply contested, and debates about party organization proved vigorous and substantial. The reforms enacted aimed partly to enhance participation and restore public respect for political life. They did not escape criticism. In fact, critics of reform became the dominant voice in subsequent discussion of what happened to the Democratic party and to party politics in the United States more generally.

The Study of Trust

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric M. Uslaner
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Interpersonal Trust ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
The West ◽  
Biological Explanations

In this introductory chapter, I survey approaches to the study of social and political trust, including a focus on my own contributions. The issues I consider include: (1) what we mean by trust; (2) whether social and political trust are part of the same syndrome or rest on different foundations; (3) how we measure trust; (4) approaches to the study of trust, from analyzing surveys to conducting experiments; (5) social-psychological versus economic (rational choice) and biological explanations for trust; (6) the consequences of both social and political trust; (7) which groups have the highest/lowest levels of trust and how/where people live shapes their social trust; (8) how interpersonal trust leads to more cooperation in the international arena; and (9) how polarization has led to reduced trust and reshaped both social and political life in the West.

scholarly journals Investigating the Relation of Functioning as A Determinant of Wellbeing to Political and Social Trust in Three Balkan Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-231
Keyword(s):  
Social Trust ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Trust In Institutions ◽  
Balkan Countries ◽  
The Stability

The measurement of wellbeing, political trust in institutions and social trust provide important indicators of the welfare of nations, political legitimacy and the stability of democratic political systems, and a country’s political culture, respectively. In this paper, the relation of functioning as a determinant of wellbeing to political and social trust was investigated using 2012 European Social Survey (ESS) datasets of three Balkan countries: Albania, Bulgaria and Kosovo. This involves first examining the structure of functioning and assess the psychometric properties of the resulting scale (or subscales). Preliminary tests explored the statistically significant relations of functioning to the political and social trust items as well as the socio-demographic variables and the left/right self-placement scale. Only in the case of the Bulgarian dataset, EFA and CFA resulted in a unidimensional valid and reliable scale measuring functioning scale comprised of all the initial eight items. Although the analysis did not result in the same structure of functioning for the three Balkan countries, it did provide a reliable and valid scale in the cases of Bulgaria and Kosovo. This work could be extended to cover all participating countries of this Round of the ESS.

Must Politics Be War?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Vallier
Keyword(s):  
American Politics ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Liberal Society ◽  
Liberal Democratic

Americans are far less likely to trust their institutions, and one another, than in decades past. This collapse in social and political trust arguably inspires our increasingly ferocious ideological conflicts and hardened partisanship. Many believe that our previously high levels of trust and bipartisanship were a pleasant anomaly and that today we live under the historic norm. For politics itself is nothing more than a struggle for power between groups with irreconcilable aims. Contemporary American politics is war because political life as such is war. This book argues that our shared liberal democratic institutions have the unique capacity to sustain social and political trust between diverse persons. Constitutional rights and democratic governance prevent any one faith or ideology from dominating the rest, and so protect each person’s freedom to live according to her values and principles. Illiberal arrangements, where one group’s faith or ideology reigns, turn those who disagree into unwilling subversives, persons with little reason to trust their regime or to be trustworthy in obeying it. Liberal arrangements, in contrast, incentivize trust and trustworthiness because they protect the conscience of all, and so allow people with diverse and divergent ends to act from conviction. Diverse people become trustworthy because they can all obey the rules of their society without acting against their ideals. A liberal society is thereby one at moral peace with a politics that is not war.

Size and Political Trust: Evidence from Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom

10.1068/c0225 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 793-812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bas Denters
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Local Government ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Elected Officials ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Negative Effect

This paper deals with two questions on the relations between the size of political systems and political trust. First, does citizens' trust in national elected officials differ from their trust in local elected officials? Second, what is the relationship between citizens' trust in elected local government officials and the size of local government units? These questions were answered on the basis of survey data from Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. We found that trust in local officeholders is typically and often considerably higher than trust in national politicians. Moreover, the evidence from these four countries suggests that size of municipality has a modest negative effect on political trust. Further evidence suggests that this negative effect is the result of a tendency of citizens in small municipalities to be more satisfied with their local government than residents in large units. This further evidence also shows that whatever its origins (intensive personal relations or a dense network of civil organisations) social trust is not vital for an adequate understanding of political trust.

Diverse Pathways to Immigrant Political Incorporation

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 (9) ◽  
pp. 1123-1130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J. Mahler ◽  
Myer Siemiatycki
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
States Immigration ◽  
Immigrant Political Incorporation ◽  
The Impact

In both Canada and the United States, immigration is producing major demographic and sociocultural changes. Yet relatively little research has been devoted to the impact of immigration on each country’s political life. Even less attention has been paid to comparing the patterns of immigrant political participation in both countries. This has left underinvestigated a host of important questions about the body politic of Canada and the United States: Measured at national, urban, and community scales, do immigrants in the two countries become integrated into formal politics such as voting and running for elected office? Are they engaged in more informal political activities such as community and ethnic organizing? If so, then how do various immigrant communities mobilize politically, form agendas and alliances, express their voices, and expand their opportunities? As more countries and cities around the world become immigration destinations, there is much to be learned about creating inclusive political systems from the comparative experience of Canada and the United States illustrated in this volume.

A Multilevel Examination of Local Newspaper Credibility

2017 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiro Yamamoto ◽  
Seungahn Nah
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Survey ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Perceived Credibility ◽  
Conservative Ideology ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
Local Newspaper

This study adopts a multilevel framework to test whether perceived credibility of local newspapers is explained by individual- and community-level factors. Data from a community survey in the United States show that structural pluralism is negatively related to local newspaper credibility. Data also reveal that conservative ideology, newspaper use, social trust, and political trust are significantly related to local newspaper credibility.

The Setting

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolette D. Manglos-Weber
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Evangelical Christianity ◽  
Interracial Relations ◽  
Personal Trust ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
History Of ◽  
Role Of Religion

This chapter presents the historical and conceptual background to the book’s argument. It starts with a history of Ghana, followed by an analysis of the trends that have led to high levels of out-migration, and then to a description of Ghanaian populations in Chicago. Next, it addresses the concept of social trust in general and personal trust in particular, developing a theory of personal trust as an imaginative and symbolic activity, and analyzing interracial relations through the lens of racialized distrust. It concludes by describing the role of religion in the integration of immigrant groups into the United States and the particular religious frameworks that characterize Charismatic Evangelical Christianity in Ghana.

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