What Do Political Left and Right Wing Mean

+ What Do Political Left and Right Wing Mean in Hungary, 2010? 0 Political Ideology Lab Balazs Feher, Agnes Szabo, Nora Miklos, Reka Palinkas March 23, 2012, Braga

Research of the Political Ideology Lab § Interdisciplinary approach of ideologies in Central and Eastern Europe § Methodological and thematical variety: from as many angles as possible (Psychology, Sociology and Political Science) Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Political ideologies: do they exist? Converse (1964) people’s political opinions are not consistent Jost (2006) using abstract concepts self-placement on ideological dimensions effects on behavior Ideologies are existing constructs of human political thinking. Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Left-Right division Supermacy of the Conservatism-Liberalism distinction? Post-communist countries Hungary Hunyady (2008) socialism -conservatism Angelusz & Tardos (2001) – attitudes toward the communist system Poland Golec (2001) – Left-Wing – economic conservatism Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Organizing structure = social representation affection behaviour cognition How Left and. Political Right are represented in people’s Psychology Science thinking? Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Social Representations Theory Moscovici (1984) and Abric (1994) § stable structure for beliefs and sensitive to change Periphery time factors context factors Central core values, principles How can we capture the individual represantion of political ideologies? free associations Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Stimulus The expressions ‘Left-wing’ and ‘Right wing’ are a recurring feature of public discourse. How would you define the meaning of these terms? How would you describe in your own words what the expression ‘Left winged’ means today? (If they mention only one: what else comes to mind? ) And the expression ‘Right-winged’? Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Sample n Timing: March, 2010. (!) n Hungarian Centre for Democracy Studies n 2 representative samples collected by research agencies (750 -750 persons each) n Altogether: 3968 processed answers, of which: 2658 contained valid information. Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Demographic variables Conference on Left and Right

Category system n Züll et al. (2010) n associating Left and Right (German representative sample) n 8 main categories + unclassifiable answers + country-specific elements Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Results – Main Categories Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Main Categories LEFT RIGHT Category N % I Ideology 301 20, 07% 141 9, 40% II General Values 158 10, 53% 86 5, 73% III Specific Values 28 1, 87% 74 4, 93% IV Societal Change 68 4, 53% 271 18, 07% V Social Groups 149 9, 93% 150 10, 00% VI Political Actors 259 17, 27% 324 21, 60% VII Concrete Aspects 109 7, 27% 75 5, 00% VIII Affective Contents 158 10, 53% 106 7, 07% Negative Contents 147 9, 80% 62 4, 13% Positive Contents 11 0, 73% 43 2, 87% IX New Categories 151 10, 07% 258 17, 20% X Not Classifiable 668 44, 53% 673 44, 87% Conference on Left and Right

Subcategories Left Right Category N % FIDESZ 154 7, 14% Socialism 150 7, 32% National Sentiment 87 4, 03% MSZP 148 7, 22% Conservatism 54 2, 50% Communism 87 4, 24% Burgeoisie 52 2, 41% Old Socialist System 76 3, 71% JOBBIK 49 2, 27% Social Sensitivity 73 3, 56% Working Class 39 1, 90% … Theft 29 1, 41% Belonging to the Past 23 1, 12% Protection of the Indigenous 48 2, 22% … Religion 33 1, 53% Progressive 32 1, 48% Radical 32 1, 48% Traditionalist 24 1, 11% Corruption 22 1, 07% Demand Progress 19 0, 88% Liberalism 18 0, 88% Against the Socialist System 15 0, 70% Conservatism 17 0, 83% Liberalism 14 0, 65% 14 0, 68% 14 0, 65% Does not Represent Leftwinged Values Youth Conference on Left and Right

Socio-demographic variables § Age: 45 -59: more ideologies! Young participants: refusal/not interested § Level of education: High school or university: more abstract concepts § Residence: Capital: Political Actors more rarely People from villages: more refusal Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Discussion Number of new subcategories: § Country-specific elements: for/against the old regime, past and future, religion, national sentiment, etc. Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Discussion Core-periphery distinction in representation: n based on frequency Periphery countryspecific elements Conference on Left and Right Central core parties, ideologies, social sensitivity, for/against the ownership, etc. POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Discussion Why are post-communist countries special? Left belonging to the past Conservative Liberal old communist system Not the two ends of one spectrum L-R and C-L: substantially different dimensions Conference on Left and Right innovation youth POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Limitations of our method n free associations? (after politics related questions) n comparability? (single words vs. complete sentences) solution: five words association test Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Present research and prospective plans Associations Scale validation University students Croatian-Hungarian co-operation Adolescents Longitudinal design Pensioners future aim: develop a scale which can measure Left- and Right-wing orientation more specifically Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB

Thank you for your attention! Nora Miklos (quutamo 22@caesar. elte. hu) Reka Palinkas (pareka@caesar. elte. hu) pil@ppk. elte. hu Conference on Left and Right POLITICAL IDEOLOGY LAB