Social Structure and Voting in the United States

This bookanalyzes practical and moral influences on voting decisions. Undermining the widespreadassumption that economic self-interest is the key determinant of voting choices,it discovers that moral considerations rooted in religious traditions are oftenthe more decisive. This finding is confirmed through a close analysis oftangible problems, such as child neglect and crime, problems which one wouldexpect to trouble practical voters. Further, this book suggests that politicalideologies influence party affiliation, rather than the other way around. It definesfour categories of states in terms of human development and income equality—South,Heartland, postindustrial, and “balanced.”  It then explains why politicalcolor (red, purple, or blue) and societal problems vary across thesecategories.  Voters’ moral ideologies, itshows, combine with a state’s measure of income equality and human development toshape a state’s readiness to pursue practical solutions to societal problems. Finally, it shows that moral ideologiesof the religious right and authoritarianism, two very different concepts, are in fact intertwined empirically.   This book thus suggests that education—a keydriver of human development, anti-authoritarianism, and deliberative voting—shouldbegin in preschools that are both nurturant and instructive.