ClassSub-Conscious: Hegemony, False Consciousness, and the Development of Political and Economic Policy Attitudes

Abstract

Americans dislike economic inequality and prefer to see it reduced. However, Americans also fail to understand the severity of the economic divide in US society between those with and without financial wealth. The refusal to recognize this economic divide between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ carries profound implications for American public policy. Those who fail to recognize the economic divide are less likely to support redistributive efforts to reduce the divide in an era of record inequality. In this study, I document the effects of class consciousness on opinions of progressive and conservative political-economic policy-related issues. I identify the ways in which Americans subconsciously allow their personal backgrounds and their opinions about the economic divide to color their opinions of political-economic policy issues.

Ideology and the limits of self-interest: System justification motivation and conservative advantages in mass politics.

“…One example among many is that of working-class conservatism (Hochschild, 1981; Jost, Blount et al, 2003; Lane, 1962; Lipset, 1960; Runciman, 1969). If it is true that system justification—including justification of the capitalist economic system—serves fundamental epistemic, existential, and relational needs for certainty, security, and conformity, this could help to explain why conservative economic attitudes are relatively popular even among those who do not benefit (in material terms) from conservative economic policies (DiMaggio, 2015; Frank, 2004; Lukes, 2011; Newman et al, 2015; Wisman & Smith, 2011). The conclusion that emerges from a system justification analysis is fairly clear: certain kinds of conservative beliefs and ideologies are likely to possess an advantage for motivational reasons, including the fact that they better satisfy—subjectively, but not necessarily objectively—underlying epistemic, existential, and relational needs, which everyone possesses to at least some degree.…”

“…System justification theory was developed to explain false consciousness and related phenomena in social psychological terms, that is, to analyze the cognitive and motivational processes associated with ideological activity—and not just its sociological or political outcomes or manifestations (Jost & Banaji, 1994; Jost & van der Toorn, 2012). It helps to explain why—at least in some contexts—even relatively poor people find it difficult to reject the notion that the system on which they depend is a truly just and meritocratic one (DiMaggio, 2015; Douglas, 2016; Godfrey & Wolf, 2016; Im, 2014; Kraus & Tan, 2015; Newman, Johnston, & Lown, 2015; Wiederkehr, Bonnot, Krauth-Gruber, & Darnon, 2015).…”

Race, Wealth, and Class Identification in 21st-Century American Society

“…In addition to the causes of class identification, studies have examined the extent to which individuals' class identities are associated with their social preferences, tastes, political attitudes, and political participation (Jackman and Jackman 1983;Hayes 1995;Wright 1997;Manza and Brooks 1999;Walsh, Jennings, and Stoker 2004;Hout 2008;Lewis-Beck et al 2008;Pew Research Center 2008;McCall and Manza 2011;Sosnaud, Brady, and Frenk 2013;DiMaggio 2014). In particular, research has indicated that Americans' class identities influence their political opinions and involvement, net of their objective economic conditions (Hayes 1995;Wright 1997;Walsh et al 2004).…”

The (Im)possibility of Class Identity: Reflections on a Case of Failed Right-Wing Hegemony

“…The argument that identities can be classed even in the absence of the idiom of 'class' resonates with the post-structuralist critique against certain reductionist versions of Marxism that have situated class and capital as identifiable 'things', rather than as relational and dynamic processes (Green, 2006). The oversimplification of how 'false consciousness' operates and the overlooking of other factors have been debated even within the Marxist framework of class divide (DiMaggio, 2015). From another angle, the culturalist critique against the employment-based class schemes is also pertinent here (Crompton, 2010).…”