Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This proposal paper shows economic individualists are likely to participate in politics whereas social individualists are unlikely to do the same thing. The relationship between individualism and participation is explored in this proposal paper.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Relying on innovative extensions of both the routine activities (Osgood et al. 1996) and the social disorganization perspectives (Sampson et al. 1997), we test the hypothesis that unstructured socializing leads to increases in violent behavior within urban communities. We also examine whether living within a high collective efficacy neighborhood reduces the impact of unstructured socializing on violence. This paper uses three waves of data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago’s Neighborhoods Community and Longitudinal Surveys. Results from a two level hierarchical liner models with robust standard error support our hypothesis, suggesting that dwelling within a high collective efficacy neighborhood attenuates the effect of unstructured socializing on violent behavior.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between responsibility and liberalism. It does so by examining Henry David Thoreau’s account of the individual’s responsibility for the impact that her actions have upon others, one of the most inspiring and demanding accounts associated with the liberal tradition. Particular attention will be paid to Thoreau’s travel literature which has only recently attracted the attention of political theorists, and which provides a more complex and nuanced account of the individual’s relationship to society than is found in Thoreau’s more overtly political writings. While Thoreau’s account of responsibility relies upon the liberal assumption that political society is a contract among consenting individuals, it is also influenced by a variety of moral, literary and philosophic resources. As this paper will demonstrate, Thoreau’s attention to history, community, and character-formation, along with his playfulness and rejection of Cartesian subjectivity mean that his account of responsibility is less vulnerable to communitarian and neo- Nietzschean objections than many other prominent liberal accounts.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: A robust macro-level association has been observed between economic development and democratic stability, but why this association should hold remains unexplained in terms of micro-foundations. One set of hypotheses proposes individual preferences as the missing causal link: preferences for democracy are stronger when individuals’ material status is better. Lack of individual-level data on poverty has so far precluded empirical tests of this hypothesis. With the help of an original dataset from 61 north Indian villages, including interviews with more than 2,000 individuals, I show that preferences for democracy are not significantly associated with material wellbeing. Neither faith in democracy nor political efficacy or participation rates are related to differences in material status. Democracy can be strongly supported even when poverty is large in a country.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Previous research has focused on economic individualism. However, there is another kind of individualism, social individualism, that has surprisingly been ignored. I argue that both social and economic individualism predict political participation even controlling standard socioeconomic and demographic variables, but the reasons behind their effects differ. Social individualists believe in social isolation whereas economic individualists pursue economic policy concerns with a vengeance. Social individualists are unlikely to participate in politics because of a fear of interpersonal contacts whereas economic individualists are likely to participate because they want to supervise the government to realize their economic interests. Data from the 1990 National Election Studies, a national random-sample survey of over 1,200 respondents, were used to test these hypotheses.

Results demonstrate that social individualists abstain from political participation whereas economic individualists are likely to participate. Poorer, older, conservative, and less educated people are likely to be social individualists. Richer, older, conservative, and white people are likely to be economic individualists. Males are more likely than females to become economic individualists. People from Midwest and married people are likely to be economic individualists.

The paper suggests that the government ought to pay attention to social individualists since they are unlikely to participate. The government should be cautious that the enthusiastic participation of economic individualists may bias policymaking in an economically conservative direction. To counteract the economic individualists’ influence, the government ought to pursue such non-economic individualism policies as affirmative actions.