Volume 1Labels, sorting and partisan feeling

Party identification and ideological labels drew closer together in American surveys. The volume asks what the labels contain, in the United States and about 100 countries, how the alignment changed across birth cohorts, and how it differs from partisans' feelings toward the other party.

Volume 2Coalitions and political differences

Participation, group coalitions, issues and attitudes toward institutions and democracy, 1948 to 2024. Party gaps on these measures differ in size and timing, and some reverse with control of the presidency, so no single trend describes them.

Volume 3Votes, giving and places

Election returns, donor records and county data count different populations at different scales. The volume follows the vote from counties to precincts and down the ballot, compares donors with voters, and returns from places to the people who live in them.

Volume 1: Labels, sorting and partisan feeling

Part I

Labels and beliefs

Party identification and ideological labels became more closely aligned, yet the labels have a loose fit with what people want and different contents in different countries.

5 written, 0 planned

Party identification and liberal-conservative self-placement came to line up closely in the United States, and a label that lines up with party can still hold different combinations of beliefs. Chapter 1.1, Party and ideology follows the two labels in American surveys. Chapter 1.2, Economic and cultural dimensions separates the label a person chooses from the positions the person holds. Economic and cultural attitudes are bundled less tightly among people who share a party than among all adults. Chapter 1.3, Left and right across countries then tests the American meaning of the left-right scale against its meaning elsewhere, and the label follows different attitudes in different countries. Companion 1.3a, Basic values and left-right and Companion 1.3b, The obedience-autonomy disposition are companions to the cross-national chapter and compare basic values and child-rearing dispositions with left-right placement. Who calls themselves conservative and who declines to place themselves on the scale are questions on the research agenda.

Explorer for this part: World values. Thirty-one World Values Survey questions by country, region and group.

Chapters

1.1
Party and ideology
Among ANES respondents, the correlation between party identification and liberal-conservative self-placement rose from +0.32 in 1972 to +0.72 in 2024.
DraftIndividualsanesgssces
1.2
Economic and cultural dimensions
Among American adults, the correlation between an index of economic conservatism and an index of cultural conservatism rose from +0.10 in the 1984 ANES to +0.51 in 2024.
DraftIndividualsanesces
1.3
Left and right across countries
The attitude that left-right self-placement follows most closely differs by country, and across countries surveyed in 2005 or later the median correlation on each of three attitudes lies between +0.07 and +0.09.
DraftCountrieswvsess
1.3a
Companion
Basic values and left-right
People who rate universalism higher place themselves further left in all 18 Western European countries in the ESS from 2002 to 2024, with a mean correlation of −0.19.
DraftCountriesesswvs
1.3b
Companion
The obedience-autonomy disposition
Valuing obedience over autonomy in children goes with placing oneself further right, with a median correlation of +0.04 across 103 countries in the WVS and EVS from 2005 to 2023.
DraftCountrieswvsessanesgss

12 further questions for this part are on the research agenda.