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The Endurance of Politicians' Values Over Four Decades

A Panel Study

Bibliographic Data

ID3378049
AuthorsDonald D Searing (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, corresponding author), William G Jacoby (Michigan State University, corresponding author), Andrew H Tyner (Princeton University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume113
Issue1
Pages226-241
Publication date2019-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0003055418000692
OpenAlexW2902174563
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited65

How much do the political values of politicians endure throughout their careers? And how might the endurance be explained? This paper uses a unique longitudinal data set to examine the persistence of political values among national politicians: members of the British House of Commons, who completed Rokeach-type value ranking instruments during 1971-73 and again 40 years later in 2012-16. The findings show remarkable stability and provide strong support for the persistence hypothesis which predicts that politicians develop crystallized value systems by their early thirties and largely maintain those values into retirement. This is consistent with the view that rapid changes in aggregate party ideologies have more to do with new views among new waves of recruits than with conversions among old members

Demographic economics · Econometrics · Economics · House of Commons · Ideology · Panel data · Persistence (discontinuity · Political science · Political stability · Politics · Ranking (information retrieval · Statistics · Value (mathematics · Cultural Differences and Values · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Engineering · Law · Mathematics · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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Unique citing works9
Citations per year1,8
Citation span2021 - 2026 (6)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 9
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