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This book illuminates, and ultimately defends, attitudinal hypocrisy within the personal politics of Americans by utilizing statistical analyses within political history, social psychology, public opinion, and political science. Within a simple and parsimonious model of political attitudes, along with a novel method of calculating and operationalizing what attitudinal hypocrisy is, the book argues that the wielding of conflicting attitudes is a necessary characteristic of the American electorate. It uses an innovative multidisciplinary approach to answer some of the most pervasive questions in American politics: Why do conservatives preach the value of economic libertarianism, but decry the lack of government involvement in social issues and the military? Why do liberals extol the virtues of a regulatory economic state, but not a cultural or military state?
List of contents
1. What Is Political Hypocrisy and Why Does it Matter?.- 2.Psychological Dispositions, Political Orientations, and a Theoretical Framework of Ideological Differences in Attitudinal Hypocrisy.- 3. Gay Is the New Black (But Black Is Still Black): The History and Current Trends of Attitudinal Hypocrisy.- 4. Analyzing and Predicting Hypocrisy in the Electorate.- 5. Having Your Cake and Eating It Too: Using Cognitive Dissonance to Explore Attitudinal Hypocrisy.- 6. What Good Is Cake If You Can't Eat It?: Prescriptions for and Conclusions About American Attitudinal Hypocrisy.
About the author
Timothy P. Collins is Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at St. Olaf College, USA.
Summary
This book illuminates, and ultimately defends, attitudinal hypocrisy within the personal politics of Americans by utilizing statistical analyses within political history, social psychology, public opinion, and political science. Within a simple and parsimonious model of political attitudes, along with a novel method of calculating and operationalizing what attitudinal hypocrisy is, the book argues that the wielding of conflicting attitudes is a necessary characteristic of the American electorate. It uses an innovative multidisciplinary approach to answer some of the most pervasive questions in American politics: Why do conservatives preach the value of economic libertarianism, but decry the lack of government involvement in social issues and the military? Why do liberals extol the virtues of a regulatory economic state, but not a cultural or military state?
