The Endurance of Politicians’ Values Over Four Decades: A Panel Study

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American political science review 2019-02, Vol.113 (1), p.226-241
Main Authors: SEARING, DONALD D., JACOBY, WILLIAM G., TYNER, ANDREW H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavioral Science Research
Behavioral Sciences
Beliefs
Crystallization
Departments
Hypotheses
Hypothesis testing
Ideology
Interviews
Learning Theories
Legislatures
Longitudinal studies
Persistence
Personality Traits
Political Attitudes
Political leadership
Political parties
Political science
Political Socialization
Politicians
Politics
Ratings & rankings
Recruits
Reference Groups
Resistance (Psychology)
Retirement
Social Environment
Socialization
Theory
Values
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0003-0554
1537-5943
DOI:10.1017/S0003055418000692