Party identification and core political values are central elements in the political belief systems of ordinary citizens. Are these predispositions related to one another? Does party identification influence core political values or are partisan identities grounded in such values? This article draws upon theoretical works on partisan information processing and value-based reasoning to derive co...

Humans are a coalitional, parochial species. Yet, extreme actions of solidarity are sometimes taken for distant or unrelated groups. What motivates people to become solidary with groups to which they do not belong originally? Here, we demonstrate that such distant solidarity can occur when the perceived treatment of an out-group clashes with one's political beliefs (e.g., for Leftists, oppressi...

The author elaborates his proposition concerning the distinction of culturalhistorical and political identity by differentiating cultural-historical majorities and minorities from political winners and losers. He points out to a democratic paradox according to which a state is governed by political minorities of winners and not by political majorities of losers. In multi-ethnic societies, holds...

Difference and diversity are phenomena existing from the very first days human communities have been formed. Under such condition, what provides for necessity of coexistence between different individuals and groups to become possible is tolerance. On the other hand, wide range development in terms of communication and providing information are going on in today’s world. This evolution called by...

Exposure to conflicting political viewpoints is widely assumed to benefit the citizens of a democratic polity. Nonetheless, the benefits of exposure to heterogeneous political viewpoints have yet to be demonstrated empirically. Drawing on national survey data that tap characteristics of people's political discussion networks, I examine the impact of heterogeneous networks of political discussio...