CHAPTER SIx • PublIC OPInIOn, POlITICAl SOCIAlIzATIOn, And THE MEdIA 121
Generational Effect
A long-lasting effect of the
events of a particular time
on the political opinions
of those who came of
political age at that time.racial and gender equality. Nevertheless, a more important factor than a person’s age is the
impact of momentous political events that shape the political attitudes of an entire gen-
eration. When events produce such a long- lasting result, we refer to it as a generational
effect (also called the cohort effect).
Working class voters who grew up in the 1930s during the Great Depression were
likely to form lifelong attachments to the Democratic Party, the party of Franklin D.
Roosevelt. In the 1960s and 1970s, the war in Vietnam, the Watergate break-in, and the
subsequent presidential cover-up fostered widespread cynicism toward government. (The
Watergate break-in was the 1972 illegal entry into Democratic National Committee offices
by members of President Richard Nixon’s reelection organization.) There is evidence that
the years of economic prosperity under President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s led
many young people to identify with the Republican Party. The very high levels of support
that younger voters have given to Barack Obama during his presidential campaigns may
be good news for the Democratic Party in future years.The Influence of Demographic Factors
Demographic characteristics, such as education, income, religion, race/ethnicity, gender,
and geographic location, are strongly correlated with political party preferences and politi-
cal ideologies. Table 6–1 on the following page illustrates the impact of some of these
variables on voting behavior.Educational Achievement
In the past, having a college education tended to be associated with voting for Republicans.
In recent years, however, this correlation has become weaker. In particular, individuals with
a postgraduate education—more than a bachelor’s degree—have become predominantly
Democratic. Many people with postgraduate degrees are professionals, such as physicians,
attorneys, and college instructors. Also, a higher percentage of voters with only a high school
education voted Republican in the last four presidential elections, compared with the pattern
in previous elections, in which that group of voters tended to favor Democrats more strongly.Economic Status
Family income is a strong predictor of economic liberalism or conservatism. Those with
low incomes tend to favor government action to benefit the poor or to promote eco-
nomic equality. Those with high incomes tend to oppose government intervention in the
economy or to support it only when it benefits business. The rich often tend toward the
right and the poor often lean toward the left.
If we examine cultural as well as economic issues, however, the four-cornered ideological
grid discussed in Chapter 1 becomes important. It happens that upper class voters are more
likely to endorse cultural liberalism, and lower class individuals are more likely to favor cultural
conservatism. Support for the right to have an abortion, for example, rises with income. It fol-
lows that libertarians—those who oppose government action on both economic and social
issues—are concentrated among the wealthier members of the population. (Libertarians
constitute the upper-right-hand corner of the grid in Figure 1–1 in Chapter 1.) Those who
favor government action both to promote traditional moral values and to promote economic
equality—economic liberals, cultural conservatives—are concentrated among groups that are
less well off. (This group fills up the lower-left-hand corner of the grid.)LO2: Identify the effects of
various influences on voting
behavior, including education,
income, religion, race/ethnicity,
gender and geography.Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
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