Partisan Families

Alan S. Zuckerman is a Professor of Political Science, and former chair of the department, at Brown University and a research professor at the DIW (German Institute of Economic Research). He has served as a visiting professor and scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Istituto di Scienze Umane, Florence, Italy, New York University, the University of Pisa, Stanford University, Tel-Aviv University, and the University of Essex. He is the author of Politics of Faction: Christian Democratic Rule in Italy and Doing Political Science; co-author of The Transformation of the Jews; editor of The Social Logic of Politics: Personal Networks as Contexts for Political Behavior; and co-editor of Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure (Cambridge University Press, 1997). In addition, Professor Zuckerman has published numerous articles in leading political science journals.

People decide about political parties by taking into account the preferences, values, expectations, and perceptions of their family, friends, colleagues, and neighbours. As most people live with others, members of their households influence each other's political decisions. How and what they think about politics and what they do are the outcomes of social processes. Applying varied statistical models to data from extensive German and British household surveys, this book shows that wives and husbands influence each other; young adults influence their parents, especially their mothers. Wives and mothers sit at the centre of households: their partisanship influences the partisanship of everyone else, and the others affect them. Politics in households interacts with competition among the political parties to sustain bounded partisanship. People ignore one of the major parties and vary their preference of its major rival over time. Election campaigns reinforce these choices.

People decide about political parties by taking into account the preferences, values, expectations, and perceptions of their family, friends, colleagues, and neighbours. As most people live with others, members of their households influence each other's political decisions. Analyzing data from extensive German and British household surveys, this book shows that wives and husbands influence each other; young adults influence their parents, especially their mothers. Wives and mothers sit at the centre of households: their partisanship influences the partisanship of everyone else, and the others affect them.

1. The social logic of partisanship: a theoretical excursion; 2. Bounded partisanship in Germany and Britain; 3. A multivariate analysis of partisan support, preference, and constancy; 4. Bounded partisanship in intimate social units: husbands, wives, and domestic partners; 5. Bounded partisanship in intimate social units: German and British parents and children; 6. Partisan constancy and partisan families: turnout and vote choice in recent British elections.