Listening to the Coalition Merchants: Measuring the Intellectual Influence of Academic Scribblers
-
Hans Noel
Following Converse's advice that ideology is the product of a ``creative synthesis," conducted by a narrow group of intellectuals, this paper reports on attempts to study ideology at its point of creation. I develop a measure of ideology expressed among pundits, based on coded opinion pieces in magazines and newspapers from 1830 to 1990. I use this measure to test the impact of ideas on party coalitions. I argue that ideologies, as created by intellectuals, strongly influence the coalitions that party leaders advance. In three cases – the realignment on slavery before the Civil War, the Civil Rights realignment in the mid-20th century, and the party change on abortion more recently – there is evidence that intellectuals reorganize the issues before parties realign around them. This evidence suggests that the patterns of ``what goes with what" that intellectuals design have an impact on the nature of political cleavages.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Notes from a New Editor
- A Blair Era? The Political Order of Modern Britain
- From Collectivist Consensus to 21st Century Neoliberalism: Orders and Eras in Postwar Britain
- Where Are We in History? Political Orders and Political Eras in the Postwar U.S.
- The Grand Coalition and a Changing Political Order: Shifting Alliances and a New Era in German Politics
- Political Orders and Political Eras in France: Can There be a Sarkozy Era?
- Listening to the Coalition Merchants: Measuring the Intellectual Influence of Academic Scribblers
- The Utility of Staying on Message: Competing Partisan Frames and Public Awareness of Elite Differences on Political Issues
- Review
- Those Wild and Wooly Seventies
- The Great Society in Education: A Persistent National Consensus?
- Book Review: A Divider, Not a Uniter
- Poles Apart: The Effect of George W. Bush on the American Electorate--Review of A Divider, Not a Uniter: George W. Bush and the American People: The 2006 Election and Beyond
- Review of A Divider, Not a Uniter
- Saving Us from Liberals: A Commentary on Who Really Cares
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Notes from a New Editor
- A Blair Era? The Political Order of Modern Britain
- From Collectivist Consensus to 21st Century Neoliberalism: Orders and Eras in Postwar Britain
- Where Are We in History? Political Orders and Political Eras in the Postwar U.S.
- The Grand Coalition and a Changing Political Order: Shifting Alliances and a New Era in German Politics
- Political Orders and Political Eras in France: Can There be a Sarkozy Era?
- Listening to the Coalition Merchants: Measuring the Intellectual Influence of Academic Scribblers
- The Utility of Staying on Message: Competing Partisan Frames and Public Awareness of Elite Differences on Political Issues
- Review
- Those Wild and Wooly Seventies
- The Great Society in Education: A Persistent National Consensus?
- Book Review: A Divider, Not a Uniter
- Poles Apart: The Effect of George W. Bush on the American Electorate--Review of A Divider, Not a Uniter: George W. Bush and the American People: The 2006 Election and Beyond
- Review of A Divider, Not a Uniter
- Saving Us from Liberals: A Commentary on Who Really Cares
