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