Jeremy C. Pope - Does Party Trump Ideology? If So, When Does it Not?
Jeremy C. Pope, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Are people conservative (liberal) because they are Republicans (Democrats)? Or is it the reverse: people are Republicans (Democrats) because they are conservatives (liberals)? Though much has been said about this long-standing question, it is difficult to test because the concepts are nearly impossible to disentangle in modern America. Ideology and partisanship are highly correlated, only growing more so over time. However, the election of President Trump presents a unique opportunity to disentangle party attachment from ideological commitment. Using a research design that employs actual “conservative” and “liberal” policy statements from President Trump, we find that low-knowledge respondents, strong Republicans, Trump approving respondents, and self-described conservatives are the most likely to behave like party loyalists by accepting the Trump cue—in either a liberal or conservative direction. These results suggest that there are a large number of party loyalists in the United States, that their claims to being a self-defined conservative are suspect, and that group loyalty is the stronger motivator of opinion than are any ideological principles.
Jeremy C. Pope is an associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University. His research encompasses such things as the influence of party records on voters, the degree of voter polarization in the public, the proper measurement of public opinion concepts as well as some work on legislatures, specifically the American founding and the Constitutional Convention.