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.

Planned

System justification

Planned This question is on the research agenda, outside the main reading sequence. Deferred.

The question

Do people with lower incomes believe in meritocracy less than those with higher incomes?

The data

World Values Survey and EVSYears: 1981-2023 (7 unified waves)
General Social SurveyYears: 1972-2024 (35 study years)

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The scope

Countries Estimates are made among respondents within each country and then compared across countries, so results describe countries, not the people in them.

The question belongs to Part I, Labels and beliefs, labels, sorting and partisan feeling. Its unit of analysis is countries. See how the book treats evidence.

The part has an explorer: World values.