left and right: political attitudes and opinions dr justin greaves department of politics and...
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Left and Right: Political Attitudes and Opinions
Dr Justin GreavesDepartment of Politics and
International StudiesUniversity of Warwick
So who am I? • Currently teach first
and second year students in PAIS
• Particular interest in British politics
• Interest in working across subject areas
(‘interdisciplinarity’)
Political views• People have different views about political
issues• One way of characterising such views is
the ‘left/right’ political spectrum • Originated from the time of the French
Revolution• The aristocracy sat on the right of the
King, and the popular movements to the left
Do you agree? • ‘Higher education
should be free for all and there should be no tuition fees’.
Do you agree?• ‘Rich people have
worked hard to make their money and therefore they should pay as little tax as possible’
Do you agree? • ‘Many unemployed
people spend too much time watching Jeremy Kyle and not enough time looking for work. Therefore, we should reduce their welfare benefits’.
Left-right spectrum• Right-wingers stress freedom or the
rights of individuals to do as they please – free from interference from government
• Left-wings believe that such freedom is at the expense of the weak. Promoting equality is far more important. Therefore, a larger role for government
• Why do you think
people have different views on political issues?
Possible explanations• Genes• Upbringing (parents/friends)• Financial situation/class/personal
circumstances• ‘Reason’ – rationally thinking through
the issues?
The three main parties
The three party leaders
• Difficulties may
occur when people with different political views try to work together
• How does this apply to the Coalition government?
A fair reflection or not?
Broken promises in politics
‘Public Opinion’• You will have seen opinion polls in the
media• These may only interview 1000 people
out of the whole population of Britain• If the sample is ‘representative’ these
polls should be accurate
• Polls usually have a
margin of error of + or – 3%
• 19 times out of 20 a poll should fall between this margin of error
• What could cause
an opinion poll to be biased or skewed in some way?
A few ideas• An unrepresentative sample• ‘Politically-correct answers’ (people like
to come across to others as being nice!)• Faulty memories• Loaded (or badly worded) questions• Key problem: polls measure attitudes
and opinions not behaviour
Getting the answer you want • This clip from Yes
Prime Minister is very illuminating on opinion polls!
• I hope you have enjoyed this seminar• More about my teaching and research
interests can be found at this link: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/greaves
• Video of one of my undergraduate lectures on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5NJyrkT-2w
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