Economic anxiety: A link between everyday life and political opinion

Over the last thirty years the American economy has changed in fundamental ways. Instead of the security and egalitarian economic gains foretold by the postwar era, income inequality and job insecurity have increased. Increasingly fluid, global borders are eroding the social pact between capital and labor and the move away from manufacturing and toward services employment produces jobs that provide vastly less security and benefits for a great many workers. In short, America is moving toward a new and postindustrial economy. Many people thrive in this new economy and many more are left fearful. But we know little about how this transformation will play out in the political arena.;The individual-level anxiety accompanying America's transition to a postindustrial, globalized economy has not been explored in any systematic way. What is the nature of the relationship between perceptions of the postindustrial economy and political beliefs and opinions? It is to this question that this dissertation speaks. In the following chapters I first sketch the broad outlines of America's economic transformation and then review the findings and theories that suggest a strong impact of economic forces upon political opinions and review the weak link political scientists have found thus far. I describe in detail my conceptualization of economic anxiety and why I am asserting its political significance.;To examine the impact of economic anxiety on political opinion I estimate several regression models using data from a mail survey of Central Pennsylvanians conducted in December 1998. I use ordinary least squares multiple regression analysis to determine the effect of postindustrial anxiety, controlling for other relevant characteristics on several political beliefs and policy opinions. These models present strong evidence of the predictive power of economic anxiety.;The line of inquiry underlying my study focuses attention upon the everyday trials and tribulations of people. We need to understand people's lives in order to ascertain if and how people link their personal lives to politics. Further, emotions like worry and fear are far too central to the way individuals experience life not to be examined in depth by researchers seeking to understand political processes.