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Class Consciousness and Political Attitudes among Athenians *
Author(s) -
Dobratz Betty A.,
Kourvetaris George A.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1984.tb00068.x
Subject(s) - politics , conservatism , socioeconomic status , voting , class consciousness , social class , perception , consciousness , voting behavior , class (philosophy) , political consciousness , social psychology , sociology , political science , political economy , psychology , law , demography , epistemology , population , philosophy , neuroscience
Using data collected in Athens, Greece in the spring of 1977, an effort was made to test the relationship between several objective socioeconomic indicators and subjective class perceptions and political attitudes. Our main concern was the effect of subjective class awareness and consciousness on selected political issues (pro‐Western foreign policy, civil liberties, and economic conservatism) and voting. Our findings show that class and socioeconomic variables tend to be stronger predictors of socio‐political attitudes than are status indicators. In addition, subjective perceptions of class (particularly capitalist political influence and limited societal opportunity), father's politics, and age are major explanatory variables for political attitudes and the way people perceive national and international issues. Perception that the upper class benefits most from clientelism was related to voting and economic conservatism. Working‐class consciousness was important in explaining voting in 1977. Our research strategy suggests that for the future we should broaden the study of class consciousness and awareness by viewing it as multidimensional and including measurements based on both closed‐ and open‐ended questions.