Publication Type: Poster
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: It has become a commonly held view that, in the US, conservative and Republican voters have embraced the so-called “neoconservative” philosophy. Fundamental tenets of this ideology include: a simplistic view of the world as a conflict between good and evil; a belief in American “exceptionalism” – a view that the US has a the exclusive right to manage international affairs by using force; a belief that if a democratic country is necessarily pro-American, which presumably justifies using force to spread democracy across the world in the interest of the US. Our 2008 post-election survey of over 24964 American voters supported the thesis that conservative voters are much more likely to see the world in black-and-white terms: the agreement with the statement “more often than not, wars are a conflict of good and evil” increased monotonically across the left-right spectrum, from 12% of progressive voters to 77% of very conservative voters. Progressive and liberal voters were also much more likely to choose “protection of human rights” as opposed to “protection of its own interests” as a valid reason why US has a right to intervene in other countries’ affairs. However, there were no ideological differences regarding the statement “all counties have an equal right to protect their own interest” with overwhelming majority of supporters of both parties agreeing with this statement. Finally, we found no difference between Democratic and Republican voters in their willingness to endorse the idea that democracy makes a country more pro-American.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will analyse the uses to which Leo Strauss and the neocons have been put since September 11, 2001 in order to understand the workings of American political culture -- and the use and abuses of ideas along the whole political spectrum.