What Do American Socialists Really Believe? Polarization, Ideology, and the Problem of Socialist Identifiers

A growing body of evidence suggests an increase in ideological and partisan polarization among Americans. At the same time, public opinion polls have found increasing support for socialism and anti-capitalist attitudes. The polarization literature, however, has not evolved to take these latter findings into account. Polarization is assumed to occur within the context of the classic liberal—conservative/Democrat—Republican dualities. Since socialist identifiers fit uneasily in these dualities, the existing literature is likely glossing over important ideological differences among Americans. In this article, we present the results of the first large-scale survey of socialist identifiers in the United States. We find that socialist identifiers differ not only from all non-socialists in terms of their redistributive, class, and racial attitudes, but their attitudes also differ significantly from non-socialist liberals. These findings suggest that the ideology and partisanship scales used throughout the social sciences obscure important ideological differences, rendering conclusions based on their use suspect.