Listening to the Coalition Merchants: Measuring the Intellectual Influence of Academic Scribblers

Abstract

Following Converse's advice that ideology is the product of a ``creative synthesis," conducted by a narrow group of intellectuals, this paper reports on attempts to study ideology at its point of creation. I develop a measure of ideology expressed among pundits, based on coded opinion pieces in magazines and newspapers from 1830 to 1990. I use this measure to test the impact of ideas on party coalitions. I argue that ideologies, as created by intellectuals, strongly influence the coalitions that party leaders advance. In three cases – the realignment on slavery before the Civil War, the Civil Rights realignment in the mid-20th century, and the party change on abortion more recently – there is evidence that intellectuals reorganize the issues before parties realign around them. This evidence suggests that the patterns of ``what goes with what" that intellectuals design have an impact on the nature of political cleavages.

Recommended Citation

Noel, Hans (2007) "Listening to the Coalition Merchants: Measuring the Intellectual Influence of Academic Scribblers," The Forum: Vol. 5 : Iss. 3, Article 7.
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/forum/vol5/iss3/art7