Class Differences in Social and Political Attitudes in the United States

This chapter takes a look at class differences in political and social attitudes in the United States. The first section briefly describes some of the modern and classical controversies with regards to class differences in public opinion. Next, the chapter considers some of the definitional issues that have hindered work in this area, and offers some descriptive examples of variation in political and social attitudes across the different specifications of class. It ends with a summary of the current status of research, and possible directions that it may take in future.