Does social mobility decrease parent-offspring transmission of political ideology?

What is it about?

This article investigates whether there is a reduction in the transmission of political ideology from parents to their offspring, for offspring who moves away from the parental social class. The study finds indeed that there is less intergenerational transmission of political ideology for respondents who experienced social mobility. However, longitudinal analyses tracking individuals' political ideology over time show that there is no change in political ideology after reaching the class of destination. This points at self-selection effects into social mobility.

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Why is it important?

The intergenerational transmission of structural factors such as social class is one of the main underlying mechanisms for the similarity in political preferences between parents and their offspring. Since social mobility of offspring breaks with the inheritance of SES, this paper asks how the ideological transmission process is affected. Unlike most studies investigating social mobility and political preferences, this study uses observations of both the parental and the offspring's ideology to investigate this process.