Patterns of tolerance

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

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2059976
AutoresOded Marom (0000-0002-4348-6704, University of Southern California, autor correspondente)
Ano2024
Volume53
Fascículo3
Páginas547-570
Data de publicação2024-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTheory and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0304-2421 • E-ISSN: 1573-7853
EditoraSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11186-024-09549-4
OpenAlexW4393192547
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências 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