Re-examining Democratic and Capitalist Values in the US: Has Consensus Frayed?

• In Event: Support for Democratic Norms, Values, and Principles

Abstract

Democracy and capitalism are among the dominant values in the American political tradition. Using 1970s survey data collected on elite and mass samples, Herbert McClosky and colleagues (Chonget al. 1983; McClosky and Zaller 1984) showed that patterns of elite consensus and ideological conflict on these values diffused unevenly in the general public. Although ordinary Americans widely endorsed abstract principles of equality and freedom, this support tended to break down when applied in specific political controversies, especially among those less knowledgeable about politics or psychologically resistant to social learning. Elites’ survey responses placed the great majority in one of three categories in a 2X2 typology – a substantial proportion of elites were “classical" (or 19th Century) liberals,” who were strongly capitalistic and stalwart in support of democratic values. Remaining elites were either “20th Century” liberals, who were more measured in their support for capitalism and amenable to government intervention in the private sector, or conservatives, who were wary of democratic and egalitarian values but supportive of capitalism. Few elites fell in the fourth “anti-regime” category, who scored low on both the democracy and capitalism items. In contrast, in the mass public, liberals and conservatives predominated, while classical liberals were far less common than among elites. A significant percentage of individuals removed from mainstream politics and elite discourse fell in the anti-regime category. McClosky and his colleagues provided evidence that social learning through political participation and education motivated support for the values of democracy and capitalism and reduced allegiance to anti-regime orientations.
Motivated by recent work on realignment in Americans’ support for political tolerance (Chong and Levy 2018; Chong et al. 2022) and acute elite debates over the scope of freedom and equality, we re-examine patterns of support for democratic and capitalist values in the US mass public. Our main evidence is a survey of 1,426 US adults fielded in 2021. The survey repeated ten of the 44 items included in the Chong et al. democratic values scale, spanning measures of egalitarianism and support for free expression rights. Ten of the items from the shorter capitalist values scale tap into beliefs about the value of competition, private property, free enterprise, profit, and labor-management relations. Items were selected for contemporary relevance, to include a mix of consensual and contested elite norms, and to represent the range of topics included in the earlier research.
When compared with 1970s data, the results from this survey demonstrate profound change in the U.S. public’s patterns of support for democracy and capitalism. Significant changes, most pronounced among the young, are found in the levels, intercorrelations, and demographic and attitudinal predictors of support for these values. Alongside modest declines in public support for more consensual capitalist norms, divisions over contested aspects of capitalism concerning labor-management relations and regulation, and the acceptability of income inequality have sharpened, and overall support has cratered among liberals. Changing norms have upended the once-coherent democratic values scale altogether. It is not reproducible in our sample.
Egalitarian and libertarian components of the scale have diverged and polarized ideologically. Rather, the items load on two separate factors measuring political tolerance and racial egalitarianism, which are negatively correlated with one another while the tolerance scale correlates positively with the capitalism scale, which, in turn, negatively correlates with support for racial equality.
Using the classification rules employed by McClosky and colleagues to group respondents into the 2X2 typology, we find the 1970s pattern fundamentally altered. The welfare liberal category has become sparse, reflecting younger liberals’ hesitance on matters of free speech and ambivalence toward capitalist principles, which lands many in the anti-regime category. Conservatives’ strengthened support for free speech and acceptance of inequality place more of them squarely in the “classical liberal” category. Strikingly, these patterns obtain among the educated and those interested in politics, a major change from a half century earlier. While democracy and freedom remain paramount values in the American political tradition, the way they are understood and prioritized in concrete controversies bears at most limited resemblance to the picture of relative consensus painted in earlier studies. As important, these values are now embraced by substantially different demographic and ideological segments of the electorate, compared with a half century ago.

Authors

• Dennis Chong, University of Southern California

• Morris E Levy, University of Southern California