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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Seeing Red: Immigration And Asymmetrical Partisan Polarization In The United States, Robert M. Worth Dec 2018

Seeing Red: Immigration And Asymmetrical Partisan Polarization In The United States, Robert M. Worth

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Since the mid-1970s, partisan polarization has been increasing in Congress and the Presidency, and, although most voters lack a stable, consistent ideology, non-ideological forms of partisan polarization have emerged in the mass public in recent decades. Moreover, ideological polarization among elites is highly asymmetrical, with increased Republican conservatism accounting for most of the increased ideological distance between the parties. Here, I develop a racial-threat backlash theory and argue that increased rates of immigration are associated with increased asymmetrical ideological polarization among elites and in the mass public. Tests of this theory on voters, the mass public in the states, state …


Perceived Public Opinion Vs. Actual Public Opinion And Media's Influence., Sarah Carey Dec 2018

Perceived Public Opinion Vs. Actual Public Opinion And Media's Influence., Sarah Carey

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This paper examines the extent of polarization in the United States in the current political climate. It was predicted that individual beliefs would be less polarized than news media makes it seem because while the political parties are moving further toward the poles, there is no evidence to suggest that individuals are doing the same. Using Berkeley’s Survey Documentation and Analysis tool, data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) was analyzed to test this premise. The ANES measured individuals’ party identification. The analysis focused on those who identify as Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. The survey then asked those same …


Millennial Voting Patterns In A Politically Polarized America, Nic Matthews Jun 2018

Millennial Voting Patterns In A Politically Polarized America, Nic Matthews

Honors College Theses

As the millennial population has grown into adulthood, this generation has been labeled as an entitled group which is politically inactive, with lower voter turnout than older generations. At the same time, existing literature shows that the federal government in America has become increasingly polarized over the past decades and less representative of the general population which still generally moderate. I argue that low voter turnouts for millennials are a direct result of this increased polarization as a more moderate young people feel like they are not represented by elite politicians, who generally fall into older generations and the highest …


Persistence Of Cultural Heritage In A Multicultural Context: Examining Factors That Shaped Voting Preferences In The 2016 Election, Anna M. Schwartz May 2018

Persistence Of Cultural Heritage In A Multicultural Context: Examining Factors That Shaped Voting Preferences In The 2016 Election, Anna M. Schwartz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The prevailing discourse about the myth of the “melting pot” of American culture implies that heritage cultures are eliminated in favor of a homogenous “American” norm. However, this myth belies the persistence of our cultural heritage in forming our attitudes, morals, and habitual patterns of thought, each of which shape how we participate in our democracy through voting. By contextualizing voting predictors such as authoritarianism, social dominance, and sexism in developmental and ecological theories, this dissertation shows how they are shaped by culture and transmitted through consumption of media and interaction with members of one’s community and family. In an …


Real Fake News: The Colbert Report And Affective Polarization, Jeffrey J. Skoroda Jan 2018

Real Fake News: The Colbert Report And Affective Polarization, Jeffrey J. Skoroda

Senior Independent Study Theses

This Independent Study examines the relationship between political satire and affective polarization. Affective polarization is a newly growing form of political polarization wherein partisans are polarized based on mutual dislike for opposing partisans rather than ideological disagreements. Political news has been linked to this recent trend in polarization. Over the past two decades, political scientists have taken an interest in investigating the impact of political satire programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report through the same lens as traditional political news. These satirical news programs implement satire, a more complex form of comedy that can require more cognitive …