Abstract
Despite a comparative disadvantage vis-à-vis whites in resources like education that often are considered to lead to political sophistication, African Americans show signs of being a rather politically sophisticated group of people. Given that better educated people are much more likely than those with less education to see larger differences between Democrats and Republicans, the propensity for blacks to perceive larger differences between the parties, both in general and on specific issues, is striking. This puzzle is explained by the fact that education has a huge impact on seeing partisan differences for whites, but not for blacks. That this understanding of the structure of American politics has so completely penetrated black public opinion is quite remarkable. Strength of partisanship, and to a lesser degree, racial consciousness, appear to be largely responsible for blacks (particularly less educated blacks) perceiving such stark party differences.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
References
Brady, Henry E., and Paul M. Sniderman (1985). Attitude attribution: a group basis for political reasoning.American Political Science Review 79:1061–1078.
Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes (1960).The American Voter. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Carmines, Edward G., and James A. Stimson (1989).Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Conover, Pamela Johnston, and Stanley Feldman (1981). The origins and meaning of liberal/conservative self-identifications.American Journal of Political Science 25: 617–645.
Converse, Philip E. (1964). The nature of belief systems in mass publics. In David E. Apter (ed.),Ideology and Discontent. New York: Free Press, pp. 202–261.
Glaser, James M. (forthcoming).Race, Campaign Politics, and the Realignment in the South. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Glaser, James M., and Michael G. Hagen (1992). Race and the investment of political resources. Paper presented at the Workshop on Race, Ethnicity, Representation, and Governing, Harvard University.
Hamill, Ruth, Milton Lodge, and Frederick Blake (1985). The breadth, depth, and utility of class, partisan, and ideological schemata.American Journal of Political Science 29:850–870.
Huckfeldt, Robert, and Carol Weitzel Kohfeld (1989).Race and the Decline of Class in American Politics. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Jackson, John, III, Barbara Leavitt Brown, and David Bositis (1982). Herbert Mc-Closky and friends revisited: 1980 Democratic and Republican party elites compared to the mass public.American Politics Quarterly 10:158–180.
Luskin, Robert C. (1985). Explaining political sophistication. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL.
Luskin, Robert C. (1987). Measuring political sophistication.American Journal of Political Science 31:856–899.
McClosky, Herbert, Paul J. Hoffman, and Rosemary O'Hara (1960). Issue conflict and consensus among party leaders and followers.American Political Science Review 54:406–427.
Miller, Arthur H., Patricia Gurin, Gerald Gurin, and Oksana Malanchuk (1981). Group consciousness and political participation.American Journal of Political Science 25: 494–511.
Moreland, Laurence W., Robert P. Steed, and Tod A. Baker (1988). Ideology, issues, and realignment among southern party activists. In Robert H. Swansbrough and David M. Brodsky (eds.),The South's New Politics: Realignment and Dealignment. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, pp. 268–281.
O'Gorman, Hubert J. (1979). White and black perceptions of racial values.Public Opinion Quarterly 43:48–59.
Rosenberg, Morris (1968).The Logic of Survey Analysis. New York: Basic Books, Inc.
Sniderman, Paul M., James M. Glaser, and Robert Griffin (1991). Information and electoral choice. In Paul M. Sniderman, Richard A. Brody, and Philip E. Tetlock (eds.),Reasoning and Choice: Explorations in Political Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 164–178.
Tate, Katherine (1993).From Protest to Politics: The New Black Voters in American Elections. Cambridge, MA: Russell Sage Foundation and Harvard University Press.
Verba, Sidney, and Norman H. Nie (1972).Participation in America. New York: Harper and Row.
Verba, Sidney, and Gary R. Orren (1985).Equality in America: A View from the Top. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wolfinger, Raymond E., and Steven J. Rosenstone (1980).Who Votes? New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Glaser, J.M. Black and white perceptions of party differences. Polit Behav 17, 155–177 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01498812
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01498812
Keywords
- Public Opinion
- American Politics
- Huge Impact
- Political Psychology
- Comparative Disadvantage