Liberal and Conservative Ideological Identities
Political polarization may be the most fundamental problem in contemporary American democracy. Much of the literature on democratic backsliding centers, for example, on intense political polarization as the primary cause of this backsliding. Recent research suggests that ideological self-categorization underlies affective political polarization. A very recent paper by Kristen Hanson, Emma O’Dwyer, and Evanthia Lyons make this point very clear.
Social identity and political ideology
Using social identity theory and self-categorization theory Hanson et al. explore the subjective meaning people attribute to liberal and conservative labels. Social identity theory posits that politically polarizing behavior is a consequence of self-categorization. Self-categorization creates a social identity that forms a person’s self-concept.… Read the rest
Leading through Wise Reasoning
Wisdom and leading might seem an obvious pairing. However, the subject index in the Sage Handbook on Leadership (2011) identifies the word “wisdom” exactly zero times. Perhaps scholars and practitioners just assume that effective leaders are also wise leaders. Perhaps the difficulty of either measuring the concept or even having near consensus concept’s dimension prevents scholarly research on the possible link between leading and wisdom. (A good overview of these issues can be found here.) Yet most people possess a certain understanding or view of wisdom. Wisdom in this common sense often means knowledge and experience that produces a set of abilities in a person.… Read the rest
Ideological identities and wise reasoning
This post continues the comment portion of the last post on liberal and conservative identities. The comments here primarily focus on the summaries drawn by the research authors on those participants who self-identified as conservatives. The conservative participants equated conservative beliefs with American values. Many equated liberals with socialism or as heading toward socialism. They saw the liberal outgroup as un-American. Although none of the self-identified liberal participants used the word socialism, many conservative participants thought socialism was a threat. Conservatives saw political conflict in the United States as a battle between two ideologies, American and non-American. They perceived themselves as defending America against an un-American liberal aggressor.… Read the rest
A Social Revolution? (1 of 6)
This is the first of an intended six posts about the social revolution created in part by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Brown vs. Board of Education decision. The next post will review Brown I and the third, Brown II. The fourth post in this series will discuss events from Brown II to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The fifth post will cover the civil rights acts of 1964 and 1968 The last post in this series will examine the Supreme Court’s Griswold decision. This post briefly covers a selection of related facts and events from 1945 to 1953 to characterize the context facing the Court in 1954
A selected chronology
In 1945 seven African Americans were lynched.… Read the rest
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