Charles Murray’s Coming Apart and the measurement of social and political divisions
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Andrew Gelman
Abstract
This article examines some claims made in a recent popular book of political sociology, with the intent not being to debunk any claims but rather to connect some important social and policy positions to statistical data on income, social class, and political attitudes. The thesis of Charles Murray’s book is that America’s upper and lower classes have become increasingly separate, with elites living more disciplined, orderly lives (characterized by marriage, work, and stable families) while being largely unaware of the lifestyles of the majority of Americans. I argue that some of Murray’s conclusions are sensitive to particular choices of whom to label as elite or upper-class. From my analysis of survey data, I see the big culture war occurring within the upper class, whereas Murray focuses on differences in attitudes and lifestyles comparing rich to poor. Coming Apart is a lively contribution to current debates and complements more statistical analyses of political and social polarization.
References
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Gelman, A., D. Park, B. Shor and J. Cortina (2009). Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do, Princeton University Press. second edition.Search in Google Scholar
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©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Articles in the same Issue
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- Single Regression Estimates of Voting Choices When Turnout is Unknown
- Synthetic Priors that Merge Opinion from Multiple Experts
- Estimating Partisan Bias of the Electoral College Under Proposed Changes in Elector Apportionment
- Elections 2012: Suppressing Fraud or Suppressing the Vote?
- Risk-limiting Audits and the Margin of Victory in Nonplurality Elections
- Response to Andrew Gelman by Charles Murray
- Charles Murray’s Coming Apart and the measurement of social and political divisions
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Single Regression Estimates of Voting Choices When Turnout is Unknown
- Synthetic Priors that Merge Opinion from Multiple Experts
- Estimating Partisan Bias of the Electoral College Under Proposed Changes in Elector Apportionment
- Elections 2012: Suppressing Fraud or Suppressing the Vote?
- Risk-limiting Audits and the Margin of Victory in Nonplurality Elections
- Response to Andrew Gelman by Charles Murray
- Charles Murray’s Coming Apart and the measurement of social and political divisions
