Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T04:00:44.854Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Networks in Context: The Social Flow of Political Information

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Robert Huckfeldt  and
John Sprague
Robert Huckfeldt
Affiliation:
Indiana University
John Sprague
Affiliation:
Washington University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We examine the effects of individual political preferences and the distribution of such preferences on the social transmission of political information. Our data base combines a 1984 election survey of citizens in South Bend, Indiana with a subsequent survey of people with whom these citizens discuss politics. Several findings emerge from the effort. First, individuals do purposefully construct informational networks corresponding to their own political preferences, and they also selectively misperceive socially supplied political information. More important, both of these individual-level processes are shown to be conditioned by constraints imposed due to the distribution of political preferences in the social context. Thus, individual control over socially supplied political information is partial and incomplete. Finally, these information-transmitting processes interact with the social context in a manner that favors partisan majorities while undermining political minorities.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 81 , Issue 4 , December 1987 , pp. 1197 - 1216
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alwin, Duane F. 1976. Assessing School Effects: Some Identities. Sociology of Education 49:294–303.Google Scholar
Berger, Bennett M. 1960. Working-Class Suburb: A Study of Auto Workers in Suburbia. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, Lawrence H. Jr., and Iversen, Gudmund R.. 1979. Contextual Analysis: Concepts and Statistical Techniques. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Brown, Thad A. 1981. On Contextual Change and Partisan Attitudes. British Journal of Political Science 11:427–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calvert, Randall L. 1985. The Value of Biased Information: A Rational Choice Model of Political Advice. Journal of Politics 4:530–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Esser, Hartmut. 1982. On the Explanation of Individual Behavior: The Case of Language Acquisition by Migrant Workers. In Theoretical Models and Empirical Analyses, ed. Raub, Werner. Utrecht: E. S. Publications.Google Scholar
Eulau, Heinz. 1986. Politics, Self, and Society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Finifter, Ada W. 1974. The Friendship Group as a Protective Environment for Political Deviants. American Political Science Review 68:607–25.Google Scholar
Hanushek, Eric A., and Jackson, John E.. 1977. Statistical Methods for Social Scientists. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Hauser, Robert M. 1974. Contextual Analysis Revisited. Sociological Methods and Research 2:365–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert. 1986. Politics in Context: Assimilation and Conflict in Urban Neighborhoods. New York: Agathon.Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert, and Sprague, John. N.d. Choice, Social Structure, and Political Information: The Informational Coercion of Minorities. American Journal of Political Science. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Jones, Edward E. 1986. Interpreting Interpersonal Behavior: The Effects of Expectancies. Science 234:41–46.Google Scholar
Kelley, Jonathon, and McAllister, Ian. 1985. Social Context and Electoral Behavior in Britain. American Journal of Political Science 29:564–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lauman, Edward O. 1973. Bonds of Pluralism: The Form and Substance of Urban Social Networks. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, Michael. 1986. Comparative Economic Voting: Britain, France, Germany, Italy. American Journal of Political Science 30:315–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKuen, Michael. N.d. Speaking of Politics: Individual Conversational Choice, Public Opinion, and the Prospects for Deliberative Democracy. In Communication and Democratic Politics, ed. Kuklinski, James and Ferejohn, John. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
MacKuen, Michael, and Brown, Courtney. 1987. Political Context and Attitude Change. American Political Science Review 81:471–90.Google Scholar
Macoby, Eleanor E., Matthews, Richard E., and Morton, Alton S.. 1954. Youth and Political Change. In Political Behavior, ed. Eulau, Heinz, Eldersveld, Samuel J., and Janowitz, Morris. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
McPhee, William. 1963. A Theory of Informal Social Influence. In Formal Theories of Mass Behavior, ed. McPhee, William N.. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Maddala, G. S. 1983. Limited-Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Warren E. 1956. One-Party Politics and the Voter. American Political Science Review 50:707–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth. 1984. The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion—Our Social Skin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth A. 1972. The Strategy of Ambiguity: Uncertainty and Electoral Competition. American Political Science Review 66:555–68.Google Scholar
Skinner, Burrhus F. 1938. The Behavior of Organisms. New York: Appleton-Century.Google Scholar
Sprague, John. 1982. Is There a Micro Theory Consistent with Contextual Analysis? In Strategies of Political Inquiry, ed. Ostrom, Elinor. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Wonnacott, Ronald J., and Wonnacott, Thomas H. 1979. Econometrics. 2d ed. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.