Is There a Culture War? Heterogeneous Value Choices and American Public Opinion

Posted: 31 Aug 2011

Date Written: August 30, 2011

Abstract

This paper examines the "culture war" hypothesis by examining American citizens' choices among a set of core values. Specifically, a geometric model is developed to represent differences in the ways that individuals rank-order seven important values: freedom, equality, economic security, social order, morality, individualism, and patriotism. The model is fitted to data on value choices from the 2006 Comparative Congressional Election Survey. The empirical results show that there is an enormous amount of heterogeneity among individual value choices; the model estimates directly contradict any notion that there is a consensus on fundamental principles within the mass public. Further, the differences break down along political lines, indicating that it probably is not inappropriate to describe the American public's feelings about values as a culture war.

Keywords: values, public opinion, political culture, culture wars, polarization

JEL Classification: C81

Suggested Citation

Jacoby, William G., Is There a Culture War? Heterogeneous Value Choices and American Public Opinion (August 30, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1919600

William G. Jacoby (Contact Author)

Michigan State University ( email )

Agriculture Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824-1122
United States

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