What Do Political Left and Right Wing Mean in Hungary, 2010? Political Ideology Research Group Balazs Feher, Judit Fodor, Agnes Szabo Supervisor: Robert Tardos

Research of PIRG Interdisciplinary approach Interdisciplinary approach Methodological and thematical variety: from as many angles as possible Methodological and thematical variety: from as many angles as possible

Political ideologies: existing or not? Structure of (abstract) political thinking (Converse, 1964 – Jost, 2006) Effect on behavior (voting) Differetiation among ideologies (in content and psychological basis) Ideologies are existing constructs of human political thinking.

The nature of the Left-Right dimension Corbetta et al, 2009 Stable, intrinsic meaning: attitude to equality Stable, but can change in content Labels of belief systems, according to political actors Labels with arbitrary content Social representations

Social Representation Theory Moscovici and Abric Individual and collective Functions: Organizational Communicational Central core and peripheral elements Consensual and unique elements Stable structure for beliefs and sensitive to change.

Political context Political Socialization Post-communist Conservatism: equality and status quo (Jost, 2003) Economical conservatism on the Left: Poland (Golec, 2001) ESS 2002 (Thorisdottir et al, 2007): Eastern and Western values on the Left and Right

Hungary: one decade after Socialism Angelusz & Tardos, 2001 Attitude to the Socialist system 2 factors Former Socialist party membership Religion The Left: EU integration, social justice, tradition The Right: authority, religion, equality, nationalism Left and Right: not a bipolar dimension!!

Present research - Method Aim: structure of belief systems Free associations Suspected connection between a stimulus and an answer

Questions The expressions ‘Left-wing’ and ‘Right wing’ are a recurring feature of public discourse. How would you define the meaning of these terms? How would you describe in your own words what the expression ‘Left-winged’ means today?( If they mention only one: what else comes to mind?) The expressions ‘Left-wing’ and ‘Right wing’ are a recurring feature of public discourse. How would you define the meaning of these terms? How would you describe in your own words what the expression ‘Left-winged’ means today?( If they mention only one: what else comes to mind?) And the expression ‘Right-winged’? And the expression ‘Right-winged’? Stimulus

Sample Timing: March, (!) Timing: March, (!) Hungarian Centre for Democracy Studies Hungarian Centre for Democracy Studies ◦ 2 representative samples collected by research agencies ( persons each) ◦ Altogether: 3968 processed answers, of which: 2658 contained valid information. Categorization: Züll et al. + specific elements Categorization: Züll et al. + specific elements

Results – Main Categories

Main Categories - Comparison Main CategoryLeft-wingRight-wing Average frequency of the category 1. Unclassifiable answers 41,20%46,13%43,67% 3. Political Actors16,47%20,60%18,54% 2. Ideology20,07%9,33%14,70% 8. New categories8,27%13,40%10,84% 4. Processes of Change 4,07%16,27%10,17% 5. Social Groups9,47%8,93%9,02% 6. Affective Contents 10,07%6,53%8,03% 7. General Values9,67%5,33%8% 9. Concrete Aspects 7,33%5,53%6,43% 10. Specific values1,60%4,27%2,94%

Subcategories - Right CategoryN% N% Empty652 31,88 % Radical281,37% Hungarian Civik Union (FIDESZ) 1527,43%Demand Change251,22% National Sentiment 663,23%Demand Progress211,03% Positive Affective Content 582,84%Traditionalism160,78% Conservatism542,64%Youth150,73% Bourgeoisie492,40%Family Policy130,64% … Liberalism120,59% Protecting the Indigenous 351,71%Order110,54% Democracy311,52%Against Tolerance110,54% Religion311,52%Private Ownership110,54% Innovative291,42% Against the Old Communist System 110,54%

Subcategories - Left CategoryN% N% Empty563 29,28 % Equality271,40% Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) 1578,16%Theft271,40% Socialism1477,64%People271,40% Negative Affective Content 1387,18%Social Support251,30% Communism874,52% Belonging to the Past 221,14% Old Communist System 683,54%The Poor211,09% … Liberalism190,99% Social Sensitivity 653,38%Conservatism170,88% Working Class351,82%Collectivism160,83%

Affective contents Affective Content - Right N% of all Affective Contents 98100,00%4,79% Positive5859,18%2,84% Negative3535,71%1,71% Neutral55,10%0,24% Affective Content - Left N% % of all Affective Content ,00%7,85% Negative13891,39%7,18% Positive127,95%0,62% Neutral10,66%0,05%

German-Hungarian comparison German counterpart: courtesy of Züll, Scholz, Schmitt, German counterpart: courtesy of Züll, Scholz, Schmitt, Altogether: 8738 answers Altogether: 8738 answers East-West Germany: lack… East-West Germany: lack…

Comparison – Main Categories Right Hungarian Sample - RightGerman Sample - Right Category% % Unclassifiable Categories33,84%Unclassifiable Categories7,73% Political Actors15,11%Political Actors14,96% Processes of Societal Change11,93%Processes of Societal Change17,21% New Categories9,83% Ideology6,85%Ideology43,15% Social Groups6,55%Social Groups3,77% Affective Contents4,79%Affective Contents1,99% Concrete Aspects4,06%Concrete Aspects1,66% General Social Values3,91%General Social Values5,50% Specific Social Values3,13%Specific Social Values4,03%

Comparison – Main Categories Left Hungarian Sample - LeftGerman Sample - Left Category% % Unclassifiable Categories32,14%Unclassifiable Categories22,96% Ideology15,65%Ideology15,50% Political Actors12,84%Political Actors17,52% Affective Content7,85%Affective Contents1,68% General Social Values7,54%General Social Values19,59% Social Groups7,38%Social Groups5,38% New Categories6,45% Concrete Aspects5,72%Concrete Aspects2,47% Processes of Societal Change3,17%Processes of Societal Change9,29% Specific Social Values1,25%Specific Social Values5,60%

Comparison – Subcategories Right GermanyHungary Category% % Conservatism and Traditionalism5,30%Conservatism and Traditionalism3,52% Excessive Nationlism11,80%National Sentiment3,23% Capitalism2,30%Capitalism1,03% Dictatorship1,40%Dictatorship0,05% Progressive0,10%Progressive1,56% Radical4,40%Radical1,37% Reactive0,90%Reactive Restrictive and Dogmatic1,90%Restrictive and Dogmatic0,05% Extremist 0,88% Innovative 1,42% Demand Progress 1, 03% Bourgeoisie0,10%Bourgeoisie2,40% Positive Affective Content0,50%Positive Affective Content2,84% Negative Affective Content1,00%Negative Affective Content1,71% Religion1,52%

Comparison – Subcategories Left GermanyHungary Category% % Socialism2,80%Socialism7,64% Lef-Wing Radicalism1,40%Left-Wing Radicalism Conservatism and Traditionalism0,10%Conservatism and Traditionalism0,88% Equality3,30%Equality1,40% Making Equality1,30%Making Equality Justice6,30%Justice0,10% Solidarity6,90%Solidarity0,57% Social Sensibility 3,38% Democracy1,40%Democracy0,36% Radical2,00%Radical0,42% Utopian0,90%Utopian Propertyless and Poor People0,10%Propertyless and Poor People1,66% Punks0,80%Punks Corruption 1,14% Negative Affective Content0,80%Negative Affective Content7,18% Old Communist System3,54%

Summary Ideologies do exist Ideologies do exist They vary across time, space and region/country, but the core elements remain They vary across time, space and region/country, but the core elements remain They can be measured by … methods They can be measured by … methods Substantial differences between established and new democracies Substantial differences between established and new democracies

Limitations and perspective Limitations of the particular method used Limitations of the particular method used The pitfalls and limits of the free association method The pitfalls and limits of the free association method Structure of social representations? Structure of social representations? A possible solution: A possible solution:

Solution – Five words method The expressions ‘Left-wing’ and ‘Right wing’ are a recurring feature of public discourse. Please note down the first five words that come to mind when you think of the following concepts! What are the first words you associate with (political) Left? Word 1. Word 2. Word 3. Word 4. Word 5.

Advantages of the method: evaluation In the followings please evaluate the words you wrote down based on how positive or negative you feel about them! In the following chart you can mark your attitude toward each word. First, please evaluate your associations to the Left: NegativeNeutralPositive Word 1. Word 2. Word 3. Word 4. Word 5.

Advantages of the five words method Capable of capturing the contect and the structure Fast data collection, easy analysis Quantifiable Ranking Centrality Density Diversity Comparable results Real affective attitude toward the concept

A shining example... Adolescent research – political socialization Sample: High school students of the Hungarian Capital Demographic data:

Main categories Right → ← Left

Middle categories – Tools and methods of political activity Right → Left →

Back to PIRG - Implications for further research Adolescent researchValidationAssociation Self- placement Network- analysis PensionersValidation Self- placement Well-being People involved in political activity Validation Self- placement International comparison Association Need for closure MORE INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON!!!

Thank you for your attention! Political Ideology Research Group, ELTE, Hungary