On the Dynamics of Ideological Identification: The Puzzle of Liberal Identification Decline

Our focus is a puzzle: that ideological identification as “liberal†is in serious decline in the United States, but at the same time support for liberal policies and for the political party of liberalism is not. We aim to understand this divorce in “liberal†in name and “liberal†in policy by investigating how particular symbols rise and fall as associations with the ideological labels “liberal†and “conservative.†We produce three kinds of evidence to shed light on this macro-level puzzle. First, we explore the words associated with “liberal†and “conservative†over time. Then we take up a group conception by examining the changing correlations between affect toward “liberals†and affect toward other groups. Finally, we consider the changing policy correlates of identification.