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An examination of how and why various US demographic groups are politically distinct and how these groups' behavior can influence public opinion, policy, and party positioning.

One of the focal points of social networks research has been the process by which individuals utilize information and cues from their social networks and communities to form political attitudes and make decisions about how and when to participate in politics. Not all individuals, however, have large social networks or are strongly connected to their local social environments. Furthermore, despite concerns about rising social isolation in American society, the role that relatively socially disconnected individuals play in politics is not well understood. Using a nationally representative data set with information about communities, social networks, and individual-level variables, this paper examines social connectedness and political behavior. Those who are more socially isolated, it is found, are neither more conservative nor liberal on any particular political issues, but clearly participate in politics less than individuals who are well connected to those around them. Finally, while individual political ideology is not correlated with isolation, the contextual influence of the local environment on individual preferences is correlated with social connectedness. When compared with well connected citizens, individuals who are more isolated are less likely to have their vote choices influenced by those around them. Individual social connectedness conditions the effect of contextual social influence.

"Economic Globalization, Democracy, and Political Behavior" published on by Oxford University Press.

The focus of this book is on how community comes to influence political behaviour; it takes an interdisciplinary approach blending the fields of community psychology, sociology, and political science.

What are the most important concepts in the political behavior literature? Have experiments supplanted surveys as the dominant method in political behavior research? What role does the American National Election Studies (ANES) play in this literature? We utilize a content analysis of over 1,100 quantitative articles on American mass political behavior published between 1980 and 2009 to address these questions. We then supplement this with a second sample of articles published between 2010 and 2018. Four key takeaways are apparent. First, the agenda of this literature is heavily skewed toward understanding voting to a relative lack of attention to specific policy attitudes and other topics. Second, experiments are ascendant, but are far from displacing surveys, and particularly the ANES. Third, while important changes to this agenda have occurred over time, it remains much the same in 2018 as it was in 1980. Fourth, the centrality of the ANES seems to stem from its time-series component. In the end, we conclude that the ANES is a critical investment for the scientific community and a main driver of political behavior research.

The approach developed by M. B. Smith, J. S. Bruner & R. W. White in Opinions and Personality (New York: Wiley, 1956) is expounded & discussed with esp reference to the concerns of pol'al sci. In the context of personality, opinions have multiple functions, categorized as object appraisal, soc adjustment & externalization. The conditions of opinion change are supposed to vary with the function served. Opinions are also expressive of a person's cognitive & temperamental traits. Previous attempts to conceptualize the determinants of opinions are reviewed from the author's perspective. The respective contributions of psychol'ly & of sociol'ly oriented approaches to opinion are discussed. It is tentatively suggested that persons' policy stands on issues as publicly formulated are most profitably to be seen in relation to factors of group membership & identification, while the conditions of attitude change may best be understood from a psychol'ly-focused approach such as that outlined. Comment by A. L. George: The type of comprehensive conceptual scheme presented by M. B. Smith is regarded as the most useful framework currently available for studying the relationship between opinions & personality, & comments on the impact & relevance of this conceptual scheme for pol'al behavior studies. AA-IPSA.

Contents: Acknowledgments. I. Introduction. II. The Primary Groups and Politics. III. Experiments and the Political Process: 1. The Culture of the Laboratory. IV. Experiments and the Political Process: 2: Bridging the Gap. V. The Concept of Leadership. VI. Leadership: Affective and Instrumental, 1. VII. Leadership: Affective and Instrumental, 2. VIII. Leadership and the Norms of the Group. IX. The Participation Hypothesis, 1: Application of a Small Group Finding. X. The Participation Hypothesis, 2: The Generality of a Small Group Finding. XI. A Concluding Note. Bibliography. Index. Originall

The field of comparative political behavior has experienced an ironic course of development. Over the past generation, the field has generated a dramatic increase in the knowledge about how people think about politics, become politically engaged, & make their political decisions. Empirical data on citizen attitudes are now available on a near global scale. However, this increase in knowledge has occurred as the processes & structures of contemporary politics are transforming citizen politics. Thus, although more is known about contemporary electorates, the behavior of the public has become more complex & individualistic, which limits the ability to explain the behavior with the most common models. This article documents the expansion of this knowledge in several areas -- political culture, political cognition, voting behavior, & political participation -- & discusses the current research challenges facing the field. 124 References. Adapted from the source document.

A broad cross-section of the social sciences is increasingly turning to biology and evolutionary theory to help explain human behavior. Political science is a notable exception to this trend, even though there are sound conceptual reasons for expecting biological processes to play an important role in explaining political behavior. While agreeing with the conceptual arguments, the authors believe original empirical research is the most persuasive means of convincing political science to incorporate biology in explanations of political behavior. Techniques developed in neuroscience, behavioral genetics, agent-based simulation, experimental economics, and other fields offer exciting research opportunities to explore questions of central interest to political scientists. The research presented in this volume provides examples of replicable, empirical evidence that political beliefs and behavior are a product of biological as well as environmental factors. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2007 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]