Economic and Social Differences by State and Party ID
In a previous post (here and here) I discussed the ideological differences between a Rural Republican Texan and an Urban New Yorker. But what are the differences between Democrats and Republicans on economic and social issues in different states? Here’s a graph from the 2000 National Annenberg Election Studies. Each state represents the mean economic and social estimates (red states indicate self-reported Republicans and blue self-reported Democrats). Positive is more Conservative and Negative more Liberal.
There is no overlap between Democrats and Republicans on the economic dimension but some overlap on the social dimension. Democrats appear to be more economically cohesive than Republicans. Socially, WV Democrats are more conservative than Republican VT, NY, MA, CT and RI.
- Details
Economic scale averages across 10 economic questions
Social scale averages across 13 social questions
We can improve upon these measures by running an item response model
Comments
Among Democrats there is a centrist-liberal continium whereas among Republicans no clear correlation between economic and social conservatism (if you do a scatter plot of the National Journal Congressional liberalism ranking this is even more apparent). Does this make management of the Republicans more difficult?
Posted by: Geoff Robinson | January 22, 2008 10:33 PM
Geoff:
Good point. For some years, I’ve been telling my Intro. American Government classes that as the GOP “base” has expanded, they can expect to encounter the same sorts of problems the Democrats have faced since the 1940s in holding their coalition together. That’s what happens when you put together different types of people with differing types, and combinations, of political preferences. That’s hardly an original insight on my part, of course, but I think it’s worth bearing in mind that having more people in your tent isn’t an unmixed blessing.
Posted by: Lee Sigelman | January 23, 2008 11:29 AM
Could you perhaps post the questions used in constructing each scale, along with any weights that were applied to the items (or were all items given equal weight)?
Posted by: Kevin | January 23, 2008 11:41 AM