Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-sq2k7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-10T11:55:06.122Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Material Interests, Identity and Linked Fate in Three Countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2020

Michael J. Donnelly Open the ORCID record for Michael J. Donnelly [Opens in a new window]
Michael J. Donnelly*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: mj.donnelly@utoronto.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the theoretical connections between identity and linked fate, extending the latter concept across three countries and four types of (potential) identity groups. This belief, that what happens to one's ethnic group, religious group, region, or class shapes one's own life chances, is an understudied middle ground between ideational and material drivers of political attitudes. The study uses experimental and observational analyses to show that the strength of individuals' beliefs in linked fate and that belief's consequences vary in systematic and predictable ways. From the very material effect of labor market uncertainty to the highly ideational effect of regional identity, linked fate is a cognitive bridge between two very different kinds of social–psychological experiences that can (and should) be applied across a wide range of countries and groups.

Keywords

public opinionlinked fateethnicityregionalismclassredistribution

Information

Type
Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 1119 - 1137
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Achen, CH and Bartels, LM (2016) Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ahlquist, J and Levi, M (2013) In the Interest of Others: Organizations and Social Activism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, B (1983) Imagined Communities. 2006 revised. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Anderson, CJ and Pontusson, J (2007) Workers, worries and welfare states: social protection and job insecurity in 15 OECD countries. European Journal of Political Research 46, 211–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, R and Heath, A (2002) Class matters: the persisting effects of contextual social class on individual voting in Britain, 1964–1997. European Sociological Review 18(2), 125–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansolabehere, S, Meredith, M and Snowberg, E (2014) Mecro-economic voting: local information and micro-perceptions of the macro-economy. Economics & Politics 26(3), 380–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appiah, KA (2018) The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity, Creed, Country, Color, Class, Culture. New York: Liveright Publishing.Google Scholar
Becher, M and Pontusson, J (2011) Whose interests do unions represent? Unionization by income in Western Europe. In Brady, D (ed.), Comparing European Workers Part B: Policies and Institutions, vol. 22. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, chapter 6, pp. 181–211.Google Scholar
Bénabou, R and Tirole, J (2006) Belief in a just world and redistributive politics. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 121(2), 699–746.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R (2000) Social identity theory: past achievements, current problems and future challenges. European Journal of Social Psychology 30(6), 745–778.Google Scholar
Brubaker, R (2004) Ethnicity Without Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cavaillé, C and Trump, K-S (2014) The two facets of social policy preferences. The Journal of Politics 77(1), 146–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandra, K (2006) What is ethnic identity and does it matter? Annual Review of Political Science 9, 397–424.Google Scholar
Chernyha, LT and Burg, SL (2012) Accounting for the effects of identity on political behavior: descent, strength of attachment, and preferences in the regions of Spain. Comparative Political Studies 45(6), 774–803.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corak, M (2013) Income inequality, equality of opportunity, and intergenerational mobility. Journal of Economic Perspectives 27(3), 79–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cramer Walsh, K (2012) Putting inequality in its place: rural consciousness and the power of perspective. American Political Science Review 106(3), 517–532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cramer Walsh, K, Jennings, MK and Stoker, L (2004) The effects of social class identification on participatory orientations towards government. British Journal of Political Science 34(3), 469–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtis, KA (2014) In times of crisis: the conditions of pocketbook effects. International Interactions 40(3), 402–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dancygier, RM and Donnelly, MJ (2013) Sectoral economies, economic contexts, and attitudes toward immigration. The Journal of Politics 75(1), 17–35.Google ScholarPubMed
Dawson, M (1994) Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, M (2009) Black and blue: black identity and black solidarity in an era of conservative triumph. In Abdelal, R, Herrera, YM, Johnston, AI and McDermott, R (eds), Measuring Identity: A Guide for Social Scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 175–202.Google Scholar
De La O, AL and Rodden, JA (2008) Does religion distract the poor? Income and issue voting around the world. Comparative Political Studies 41(4–5), 437–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnelly, MJ (2016) Competition and solidarity: union members and immigration in Europe. West European Politics 39(4), 688–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnelly, MJ (2019) Inequality, interest groups, and persuasion. Working paper.Google Scholar
Donnelly, MJ (2020) “Replication Data for: Material interests, identity, and linked fate in three countries”, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/U1JEC0, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:ut0oYQRbQ7njESEOAAm5oQ== [fileUNF]Google Scholar
Dunning, T and Harrison, L (2010) Cross-cutting cleavages and ethnic voting: an experimental study of cousinage in Mali. American Political Science Review 104(1), 21–39.Google Scholar
Enos, R (2017) The Space Between Us: Social Geography and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gay, C, Hochschild, J and White, A (2016) Americans’ belief in linked fate: does the measure capture the concept? The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics 1(1), 117–144.Google Scholar
Gugushvili, A, Bukodi, E and Goldthorpe, JH (2017) The direct effect of social origins on social mobility chances: ‘glass floors’ and ‘glass ceilings’ in Britain. European Sociological Review 33(2), 305–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guinjoan, M and Rodon, T (2016) A scrutiny of the Linz-Moreno question. Publius: The Journal of Federalism 46(1), 128–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habyarimana, J et al. (2009) Coethnicity: Diversity and the Dilemmas of Collective Action. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, J and Hiscox, MJ (2010) Attitudes toward highly skilled and low-skilled immigration: evidence from a survey experiment. American Political Science Review 104(1), 61–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hajnal, Z and Trounstine, J (2014) What underlies urban politics? Race, class, ideology, partisanship, and the urban vote. Urban Affairs Review 50(1), 63–99.Google Scholar
Hartmann, D et al. (2011) How Americans understand racial and religious differences: a test of parallel items from a national survey. The Sociological Quarterly 52, 323–345.Google Scholar
Hays, RD, Liu, H and Kapteyn, A (2015) Use of internet panels to conduct surveys. Behavior Research Methods 47(3), 685–690.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hechter, M (1973) The persistence of regionalism in the British Isles, 1885–1966. American Journal of Sociology 79(2), 319–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogg, MA (2011) Subjective uncertainty reduction through self-categorisation: a motivational theory of social identity process. European Review of Social Psychology 11, 223–255.Google Scholar
Huber, E, Ragin, CC and Stephens, JD (1993) Social democracy, Christian democracy, constitutional structure, and the welfare state. American Journal of Sociology 99(3), 711–749.Google Scholar
Iversen, T and Soskice, D (2001) An asset theory of social policy preferences. American Political Science Review 95(4), 875–893.Google Scholar
Iversen, T and Soskice, D (2015) Information, inequality, and mass polarization: ideology in advanced democracies. Comparative Political Studies 48(13), 1781–1813.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, DR and Kiewiet, DR (1981) Sociotropic politics: the American case. British Journal of Political Science 11(2), 129–161.Google Scholar
Klor, EF and Shayo, M (2010) Social identity and preferences over redistribution. Journal of Public Economics 94(3–4), 269–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuo, A and Margalit, Y (2012) Measuring individual identity: experimental evidence. Comparative Politics 44(4), 459–479.Google Scholar
Lenin, VI (1902) Essential Works of Lenin: ‘What is to be Done?’ and Other Writings. New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Lerner, M and Miller, D (1977) Just world research and the attribution process: looking back and ahead. Psychological Bulleti 85, 1030–1051.Google Scholar
Lipset, SM and Rokkan, S (1967) Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross National Perspectives. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Lupu, N and Pontusson, J (2011) The structure of inequality and the politics of redistribution. American Political Science Review 105(2), 316–336.Google Scholar
Maas, I and van Leeuwen, MHD (2016) Toward open societies? Trends in male intergenerational class mobility in European countries during industrialization. American Journal of Sociology 122(3), 838–885.Google Scholar
Malhotra, N, Margalit, YM and Mo, CH (2013) Economic explanations for opposition to immigration: distinguishing between prevalence and magnitude. American Journal of Political Science 57(2), 391–410.Google Scholar
Margalit, YM (2013) Explaining social policy preferences: evidence from the great recession. The American Political Science Review 107(1), 80–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marx, K and Engels, F (1964) The Communist Manifesto. New York: Pocket Books.Google Scholar
Marx, P (2014) Labour market risks and political preferences: the case of temporary employment. European Journal of Political Research 53(1), 136–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, T (2016) Theresa May's conference speech in full. Available from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/05/theresa-mays-conference-speech-in-full/.Google Scholar
Mendelberg, T (2008a) Racial priming: issues in research design and interpretation. Perspectives on Politics 6(01), 135–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendelberg, T (2008b) Racial priming revived. Perspectives on Politics 6(1), 109–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendelberg, T, McCabe, KT and Thal, A (2017) College socialization and the economic views of affluent Americans. American Journal of Political Science 61(3), 606–623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moene, KO and Wallerstein, M (2001) Inequality, social insurance, and redistribution. American Political Science Review 95(4), 859–874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moreau, J, Nuño-Pérez, S, and Sanchez, L (2019) Intersectionality, linked fate, and LGBTQ Latinx political participation. Political Research Quarterly. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Moreno, L (2006) Scotland, Catalonia, Europeanization, and the ‘Moreno Question’. Scottish Affairs 54, 1–21.Google Scholar
Mullinix, KJ et al. (2015) The generalizability of survey experiments. Journal of Experimental Political Science 2(2), 109–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mutz, DC (2011) Population-Based Survey Experiments. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Newman, BJ, Johnston, CD and Lown, PL (2015) False consciousness or class awareness? Local income inequality, personal economic position, and belief in American meritocracy. American Journal of Political Science 59(2), 326–340.Google Scholar
Operario, D and Fiske, ST (2001) Ethnic identity moderates perceptions of prejudice: judgments of personal versus group discrimination and subtle versus blatant bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 27(5), 550–561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owens, LA and Pedulla, DS (2014) Material welfare and changing political preferences: the case of support for redistributive social policies. Social Forces 92(3), 1087–1113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, A and Sprague, J (1986) Paper Stones: A History of Electoral Socialism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rehm, P (2009) Risks and redistribution: an individual analysis. Comparative Political Studies 42(7), 855–881.Google Scholar
Rehm, P (2016) Risk Inequality and Welfare States. Social Policy Preferences, Development, and Dynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rehm, P, Hacker, JS and Schlesinger, M (2012) Insecure alliances: risk, inequality, and support for the welfare state. American Political Science Review 106(2), 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanchez, GR and Vargas, ED (2016) Taking a closer look at group identity: the link between theory and measurement of group consciousness and linked fate. Political Research Quarterly 69(1), 160–174.Google Scholar
Schildkraut, DJ (2017) White attitudes about descriptive representation in the US: the roles of identity, discrimination, and linked fate. Politics, Groups, and Identities 5(1), 84–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solt, F (2011) Diversionary nationalism: economic inequality and the formation of national pride. American Journal of Political Science 73(3), 821–830.Google Scholar
Steenbergen, M, Edwards, E and de Vries, C (2007) Who's cueing whom? European Union Politics 8(1), 13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stout, CT, Kretschmer, K and Ruppanner, L (2017) Gender linked fate, race/ethnicity, and the marriage gap in American politics. Political Research Quarterly 70(3), 509–522.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H and Turner, JC (1986) The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In Worchel, S and Austin, WG (eds), Psychology of Intergroup Relations, 2nd Edn. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall Publishers.Google Scholar
Thal, A (2017) Class isolation and affluent Americans’ perception of social conditions. Political Behavior 39(2), 401–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tucker, J (2006) Regional Economic Voting: Russia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, 1990–1999. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Oorschot, W (2006) Making the difference in social Europe: deservingness perceptions among citizens of European welfare states. Journal of European Social Policy 16(1), 23–42.Google Scholar
Verkuyten, M (2017) Supporting the democratic political organisation of Muslim immigrants: the perspective of Muslims in the Netherlands and Germany. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43(1), 137–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, JR (2002) Immigration Policy and the Challenge of Globalization: Unions and Employers in Unlikely Alliance. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, J (1992) The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Donnelly supplementary material

Donnelly supplementary material

Download Donnelly supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 200.4 KB
Supplementary material: Link

Donnelly Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/U1JEC0
Link