Patterns of tolerance

How interaction culture and community relations explain political tolerance (and intolerance) in the American libertarian movement

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2059976
AutoresOded Marom (0000-0002-4348-6704, University of Southern California, autor de correspondencia)
Año2024
Volumen53
Número3
Páginas547-570
Fecha de publicación2024-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaTheory and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0304-2421 • E-ISSN: 1573-7853
EditorialSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11186-024-09549-4
OpenAlexW4393192547
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas25

Existing explanations of political intolerance and partisanship highlight how individuals' ideological commitments and the homogeneity of their political environments foster intolerance toward other political groups. This article argues that cultural, interactional conditions play a crucial role in how personal and environmental factors work - or do not work - in local groups. Based on a four-year ethnographic study and 12 focus group discussions with two culturally distinct civic associations of American libertarians, I show how groups' varying patterns of interaction, or 'styles,' establish distinct cultural settings, in which different attitudes and behaviors seem sensible and appropriate, particularly regarding other political groups. Thus, when libertarian groups established a 'community style' of interaction, viewing the relationship among members in terms of friendship and community bonds, they also opened their social activities to non-libertarians, collaborated with them in political projects, and viewed politics as a matter of advancing shared interests with people from other political groups. Comparisons across and within field sites show how this relationship between style and political tolerance works in different libertarian groups and different social environments. These findings highlight the role of local factors in explaining variations in groups' levels of political tolerance and present a key mechanism-centered on interaction patterns-to supplement existing analyses of the relationship between political intolerance and changing forms of civic organizing in the US

Aesthetics · Political culture · Political science · Politics · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology