Americans' Downward Mobility Shifts Votes to the Right

A decline in a person's economic security relative to that of their relatives, neighbors, and any other group used by people in comparing themselves is correlated with emotional states of loss, anger, anxiety, and decline in subjective well-being. Using publicly available data on voting pattern...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social research Vol. 91; no. 3; pp. 795 - 818
Main Authors: Ghilarducci, Teresa, Tursini, Ludovica
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York Johns Hopkins University Press 01.09.2024
Subjects:
Anger
Anxiety
Authoritarianism
Candidates
Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Counties
COVID-19
Education
Election results
Elections
Emotional states
Family income
Immigration
Mobility
Political majority
Political parties
Population decline
Populism
Presidential elections
Presidents
Race
Racism
Rhetoric
Security
Social exclusion
Trade policy
Voter behavior
Voters
Voting
Well being
Working class
United States > US
ISSN:0037-783X, 1944-768X, 1944-768X
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A decline in a person's economic security relative to that of their relatives, neighbors, and any other group used by people in comparing themselves is correlated with emotional states of loss, anger, anxiety, and decline in subjective well-being. Using publicly available data on voting patterns for 910 selected counties in the United States in four presidential election cycles (2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020), we find that if people in a county experience downward mobility in relative economic security, the county that was once majority Democratic would likely shift to majority Republican voting. This evidence suggests that the fear of loss of relative economic security is associated with voting for authoritarian candidates and agendas.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0037-783X
1944-768X
1944-768X
DOI:10.1353/sor.2024.a938578