Disagreeing about Disagreement: How Conflict in Social Networks Affects Political Behavior

At the center of debates on deliberative democracy is the issue of how much deliberation citizens experience in their social networks. These "disagreements about disagreement" come in a variety of forms, with scholars advocating different empirical approaches (e.g., Huckfeldt, Johnson, and...

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Published inAmerican journal of political science Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 120 - 134
Main Authors Klofstad, Casey A., Sokhey, Anand Edward, McClurg, Scott D.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.01.2013
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Blackwell Publishing Ltd
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Summary:At the center of debates on deliberative democracy is the issue of how much deliberation citizens experience in their social networks. These "disagreements about disagreement" come in a variety of forms, with scholars advocating different empirical approaches (e.g., Huckfeldt, Johnson, and Sprague 2004; Mutz 2006) and coming to different substantive conclusions. We address these discrepancies by going back to the basics: investigating the consequences of conceptual and measurement differences for key findings relating interpersonal political disagreement to political attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on the 2008–2009 ANES panel study, we find evidence that different measures of disagreement have distinct effects when it comes to individuals' preferences, patterns of engagement, and propensities to participate. We discuss the implications for the study of social influence; as interpersonal disagreement can mean different things, scholars should think carefully about how to study it and should exercise caution when making pronouncements about its empirical and democratic consequences.
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Casey A. Klofstad is Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Miami, 5250 University Drive, Jenkins Building, Room 314‐G, Coral Gables, FL 33146‐6534
klofstad@gmail.com
Scott D. McClurg is Professor of Political Science, Southern Illinois University, 3166 Faner Hall, Mailstop 4501, Carbondale, IL 62901‐4501
.
Anand Edward Sokhey is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, Ketchum 106, UCB 333, Boulder, CO 80309
anand.sokhey@colorado.edu
mcclurg@siu.edu
We are grateful to Betsy Sinclair, Andrew Therriault, Rick Wilson, and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments at various stages of the project.
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ISSN:0092-5853
1540-5907
DOI:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2012.00620.x