Public-Regardingness as a Value Premise in Voting Behavior

Abstract

Our concern here is with the nature of the individual's attachment to the body politic and, more particularly, with the value premises underlying the choices made by certain classes of voters. Our hypothesis is that some classes of voters (provisionally defined as “subcultures” constituted on ethnic and income lines) are more disposed than others to rest their choices on some conception of “the public interest” or the “welfare of the community.” To say the same thing in another way, the voting behavior of some classes tends to be more public-regarding and less private- (self- or family-) regarding than that of others. To test this hypothesis it is necessary to examine voting behavior in situations where one can say that a certain vote could not have been private-regarding. Local bond and other expenditure referenda present such situations: it is sometimes possible to say that a vote in favor of a particular expenditure proposal is incompatible with a certain voter's self-interest narrowly conceived. If the voter nevertheless casts such a vote and if there is evidence that his vote was not in some sense irrational or accidental, then it must be presumed that his action was based on some conception of “the public interest.”

Would the Dream of Political Equality Turn out to Be a Nightmare?

“…Some early research on the civic-mindedness of citizens found that better-educated citizens were more likely to have a long time horizon and to think of the public good when contemplating social and economic issues. Lesseducated citizens and newer immigrants had a shorter time horizon and thought of policies from the point of view of immediate impact on themselves (see Wilson and Banfield 1964). I think there is some truth to this, but many years of looking at what respondents say about public issues have also made clear that those who are more articulate have little difficulty expressing self-interest in broad social terms.…”

Utility and fairness concerns in policy evaluation among Japanese people

“…For example, people will accept a tax policy if they judge it will reduce their tax bills. The other type of utility concern is public concern, that is, a judgment of whether a policy is necessary for the country or the people (Wilson & Banfield, 1964). For example, people will accept a tax increase if they judge it is necessary to expand the social welfare system, even though it costs them in the short term.…”

Images of Community Action in a Southern City: An Exploratory Typological Analysis

“…Assuredly, anthropologists and sociologists have found the affective-instrumental distinction in communal bonds to have considerable utility in explaining differences within and among communities.1 Yet, their findings have had little impact upon political research. The one example of empirical analysis of "policy images" beyond scattered measures of isolated traits-such as liberalism-conservatism or radicalism-traditionalism-is the work of Wilson and Banfield (1963, 1964 who have argued that certain population groups in American cities tend to follow one or the other of two orientations toward public affairs in the local community. Their term for such policy images, "ethos," refers essentially to a culturally-validated image.…”