Sunday, July 5, 2020

Chemical engineers, computer & information systems managers, & management analysts are virtually all Republican; epidemiologists, computer programmers, & historians are virtually all Democrats

Occupational Engagement and Partisanship in the United States. Darin DeWitt. Political Studies Review, July 4, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929920932129

Abstract: In this article, I present a portrait of the American power elite and their relationship with the party system. I focus on occupational categories as institutional positions and take up three questions: Which occupational categories wield social influence? How politically mobilized is each of these occupational categories? And what partisan tilt is exhibited by each category? My results help clarify the contemporary structure of American electoral competition. Furthermore, they also shed light on which social groups have a voice in American politics and, thus, speak to questions of political equality.

Keywords: power elite, occupational subcultures, party identification, political inequality