The Political Implications of Economic Lives: Listening to AVP Respondents’ Perceptions of Efficacy

Abstract

How are Americans’ perceptions of their economic lives related to their perceptions of their agency (internal efficacy) and institutional responsiveness (external efficacy) in the political realm? We use the American Voices Project data to listen to such perceptions using in-depth, holistic analysis of a subsample of cases. We find that individuals’ understandings of their place in the economy resemble the sense of efficacy they express with respect to politics, with those with extreme economic insecurity talking about politics as a world removed from their own. These views are a stark indicator of the compounding effects of economic and political disaffection.

Keywords

• political efficacy
• economic perceptions
• political participation