Feelings of disgust may have effects on one’s moral judgment; specifically that experience of disgust has linked to increased severity of moral judgments. Additionally, one’s political beliefs may also affect one’s moral judgment, such as conservatives tend to make harsher judgment toward moral situations and behaviors. A 2 x 2 x 2 factorial quasi-experiment has been proposed to study 420 participants, legal adults from both conservative and liberal neighborhoods, randomly assigned to one of two conditions, disgust-eliciting versus neutral. Participants will view either four disgust-eliciting photographs or four neutral photographs, and then complete survey questions on disgust rating, moral judgment, disgust sensitivity, and political self-identification. It is hypothesized that, participants who identify as liberals, will feel less disgusted by the photos than conservative participants, and have more lenient moral judgment, whereas participants who identify as conservatives, will feel more disgusted by the photos than liberals, and have much harsher moral judgment.

There is an ongoing debate among psychologists regarding the psychological factors underlying moral judgments. Rationalists argue that informational assumptions (i.e. ideological beliefs about how the world works) play a causal role in shaping moral judgments whereas intuitionists argue that informational assumptions are post hoc justifications for judgments made automatically by innate intuitions. In order to compare these two perspectives, the author conducted two studies in which informational assumptions related to ingroups and outgroups varied across conditions. In Study 1, political conservatives and liberals completed the moral relevance questionnaire while imagining they were in the US, Iran, or no specific country. Keeping in line with the predictions of the intuitionist perspective, the results showed that the judgments of conservatives and liberals did not significantly differ across conditions. Study 2 used a more in depth manipulation in which participants read a vignette about a government (US, Iran, or the fictional country of Kasbara) violating the rights of a minority group. As in Study 1, the results support the intuitionist perspective--the judgments of conservatives and liberals did not significantly differ across conditions. These findings play a small part in clarifying the role of informational assumptions in moral judgments.

Four studies investigated the effects of attitude extremity and political ideology on the degree and direction of changes in issue attitudes following the presentation of mixed evidence. Based upon previous work, it was predicted that those holding relatively more extreme attitudes would resist changing those views when presented with a mixture of supporting and opposing statements and would potentially adopt more extreme evaluative positions – a phenomenon known as attitude polarization (Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979). Evaluative entrenchment or intensification was also expected among more politically conservative participants, based upon prior work describing cognitive rigidity and resistance to change as more characteristic of the political right than left (e.g., Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003). An interaction of attitude extremity and political ideology was also hypothesized, such that liberal individuals with moderate attitudes were expected to demonstrate the least propensity to polarize. Participants’ attitudes regarding abortion rights (Study 1), gun control (Study 2), tax increases (Study 3), and environmental preservation (Study 4) were assessed before and after reading statements that both opposed and supported the issue. Political ideology was also assessed, along with several individual difference factors. Across all four studies, attitude extremity significantly predicted evaluative change, although the pattern of that effect varied. Political ideology did not emerge consistently as a predictor of attitude change; however, significant interactive effects of extremity and ideology were found. In addition, several individual difference factors (i.e., gender, need for cognition, issue importance) were found to moderate the effects of the primary predictors on attitude change, and some divergent result patterns were found when comparing data from a college and non-college sample in Study 4. Taken together, these studies provide evidence that attitude extremity and political ideology influence the degree and direction of evaluative change following the presentation of mixed evidence. In addition, they identify other factors at work in effecting change versus resistance, thereby highlighting the multi-faceted and complex nature of persuasion in a political context.

Esta dissertação apresenta uma reflexão de teoria política normativa a respeito da tolerância no plano mundial adotando uma perspectiva tributária do individualismo ético e dos contratualismos rawlsiano e kantiano. Sua argumentação defende uma interpretação individualista e universalista da tolerância enquanto virtude política institucional. Justificar-se-á a idéia de que a tolerância requer uma lista ampla de direitos humanos e que é um critério normativo de legitimidade política frente às comunidades internas e global / This dissertation presents a reflection of Political Theory about toleration in world plan adopting a perspective of ethical individualism and Rawlsian and Kantian contractualism. Its argumentation defends an individualist and universalist interpretation of toleration while institutional and political virtue. The idea will be justified as toleration requires an extensive list of human rights and that it is a moral criterion of politics legitimacy in front of internal and global communities

This research aims to explain teacher policy developments in England since the nineteenth century, using a historical approach. To this end, this research has demarcated the scope of teacher policy, in consideration of the main career phases of regular teachers, into three policy areas – initial teacher training, curriculum and teaching, and employment and professional development – and has divided the whole period of 1800-2008, in consideration of major political changes and the management of the research, into four periods of governments: early era governments (1800-1943), post-war era governments (1944-1979), Thatcherite governments (1979-1997), and New Labour governments (1997-2008). Teacher policy in each period has been explained in accordance with an analytical framework employing concepts of historical-institution legacies (HILs), interlinking-institution legacies (IILs), government strategies, political ideologies and socio-economic situations, devised largely on the basis of the perspectives of historical institutionalism and the statecentred approach. Teacher policy in the early era governments has been explained in terms of HILs developed to address the long-lived effects of early institutions on subsequent policies over time. The changing pattern of teacher policy during the period of government change in the last three periods has been explained in terms of IILs. This research suggests certain teacher policies in the early era governments have had a strong effect on subsequent policies, consistently or intermittently, in the form of revival. For example, apprenticeship instituted as an early form of school-based teacher training has reflected its legacy in subsequent policies such as SCITT and employment-based training. This research has found that, as IILs, striking changes in certain policies have already started before government change. Furthermore, this research argues that the three groups of governments have employed their own strategies under different political ideologies and socio-economic situations, and that most teacher policies have been made in line with their strategies.

Although White Americans experience less frequent and less severe forms of discrimination than racial minorities (Schmitt & Branscombe, 2002), White Americans may actually be more likely to make claims of discrimination compared to racial minorities (Goldman, 2001). The present research investigated evaluations of White and Black American discrimination claimants’ political views and prejudicial attitudes. Across two studies, a White American target was evaluated as more politically conservative when claiming discrimination compared to a control condition. In contrast, a Black American target was evaluated as more politically liberal when claiming discrimination compared to a control condition. Both the White and Black American target were evaluated as more prejudiced against the outgroup when claiming discrimination, however the increase in prejudice evaluations was more pronounced for the White American target. The present research suggests that lay individuals make distinct inferences about the political views and prejudicial attitudes of White versus Black American discrimination claimants. / acase@tulane.edu

Sweden currently has no legislated regulation of lobbying, but the professional lobbyist can voluntarily subscribe to, among others, the professional code of standars created by the trade association of Public Relations, Precis. There is an ongoing discussion in Sweden to regulate lobbying, both in mass media and in politics. This study examines this debate and focus on which arguments there are for and against lobbying regulation in Sweden. It also attempts to identify the differences, if there are any, between left and rights parties with regards to their views on regulation of lobbying. Tha main method used was document analysis of parliamentary bills which have been raised concerning a lobbying regulation in Sweden. In the theory section, I include four different types of requirements placed on democratic lobbying (se for example Jaatinen 1998, Kitchen 1999, Larsson 2005, Möller 2009 and Naurin 2001). The research showed the need for transparency to be the most prominent, followed by requirement of equal acces to diffrent social groups to lobby. The document analysis focus on the arguments that are given to regulate lobbying in Sweden. The arguments for regulating lobbying presented of the parliamentary bills include measures taken to prevent covert lobbying, to create more equal opportunities to lobby, to that the kind of self-regulation practiced by the proffesional lobbyists by Precis proffesional standars has shortcomings, to that the PR industry will expand and that lobbying is at least commom in Sweden as in other parlaments. Therefore, there is a need to review how other countries have regulated lobbying. The study shows that among the parliamentary bills, The European Parliament regulatory system is the largest role model of other parliaments regulating lobbying. Furtheremore it shows that a registration system is the type of regulation advocated by the most of the politicians behind the researched parliamentary bills. The counter-arguments to a lobbyng regulation in Sweden, identified trough the document analysis and interviews in this study, are that ethics and morality of the individual are more important than rules and laws and a skepticism that a registration system can record people's lifes, which from a democratic point of view is not desirable. Other counter-arguments are that the community allready has so many rules and laws and that a regulatory system can discriminate less economically affluent groups in society. The study has shown that one can devise some differences between left- and right-wing views concerning policies for regulating lobbying in Sweden. This because no parliamentary bills has brought on a lobbying regulation by any of the so- called red parties and the majority of the bills are raised by politicians from the right-wing Moderate Party. One can also see diffrences in the arguments of regulating lobbying by politicians. The bourgeous side seems tho think that the most important requirement of lobbying from a democratic perspective is transparency while the Swedish Green Party is focusing on the lack of equal access between different social groups to lobby.

Hållbar utveckling som begrepp används frekvent i dagens samhälle och är också det övergripande målet för svensk nationell strategi. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka i vilken utsträckning hållbar utveckling och/eller ekologisk modernisering beskriver miljöpolicyn hos de två största politiska partierna i Sverige. Dessa två partier, Socialdemokraterna och Moderaterna, tillhör varsitt partipolitiskt block med olika ideologier. Resultaten i uppsatsen visar att det finns väsentliga skillnader mellan de båda partiernas miljöpolicys som är grundade i olika politiska ideologier. Socialdemokraterna har sina rötter i frågor som demokrati, social rättvisa och välfärdsfrågor, och deras miljöpolicy överensstämmer till stor del med hållbar utveckling. Moderaterna utgår från liberalkonservativa idéer med utgångspunkt i individualism och marknadsbaserade ekonomier och deras miljöpolicy harmoniserar överlag med ekologisk modernisering. Att dessa skillnader existerar kan uppfattas som något överraskande eftersom båda partierna stödjer den nationella strategin för hållbar utveckling tillsammans med att senaste ordförandeskapet för kommissionen för hållbar utveckling innehades av Moderaternas partiledare. / Sustainable development as a concept is frequently utilized nowadays in our society and is additionally used as a comprehensive goal of Swedish national strategy. The purpose of this essay is approach this issue and to examine whether sustainable development and/or ecological modernization best describes the environmental policy of the two major political parties in Sweden. Socialdemokraterna and Moderaterna belong to opposite ideological parties, one on the left wing and the other one on the right wing. The result of this essay concludes that there are essential differences between the environmental policies of the two parties that are related to the underlying political ideology. Socialdemokraterna, on the one hand, has its root in democracy, social justice and welfare issues and the environmental policy mostly agrees with sustainable development. Moderaterna, on the other hand, takes its starting point in liberal-conservative thoughts with individualism and market-based economies and their environmental policy is in almost every aspect in accordance with ecological modernization. Yet, the differences in environmental policies are to some extent unexpected since both parties support the national strategy of sustainable development. Besides, the latest chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development was the party leader of Moderaterna.

In the first essay, we examine the link between CEOs political ideology - conservatism - and their firms' investment decisions. We focus on the effect of CEO conservatism on M&A decisions. Our evidence indicates that politically conservative CEOs are less likely to engage in M&A activities. When they do undertake acquisitions, their firms are more likely to use cash as the method of payment, and the target firms are more likely to be public firms and to be from the same industry. Conditional on the merger, CEO conservatism appears to have a significantly positive impact on long-run firm valuation. However, we find no evidence that conservative CEOs create value in the short run. All our results hold after controlling for CEO overconfidence. In the second essay, we investigate the impact of difference in local political ideologies between acquirers and targets on the likelihood of deal completion and announcement returns over the period of 1981-2009. We posit that increase in political ideology distance between acquirer and target leads to greater risks/costs associated with the integration process. This increase in distance is less likely to allow for the completion of deals and elicit less favorable market response to merger announcements. We find that when political ideology distance between acquirer and target in a merger are minimal, deals are more likely to be completed. We also find that acquirer which are politically proximate to their targets earn significantly higher returns than distant acquirers. After controlling for the geographic effect and other determinants of announcement returns, the political ideology effect still exists. Overall, the evidence suggests that corporate political ideology plays an important role in completing deals and determining announcement returns.

In the following thesis I examine the possible evolutionary significance of behavioural differences associated with liberal and conservative ideological orientations. In investigating the evolutionary significance of these two orientations I have two primary research questions. First, how do liberal and conservative oriented individuals differ in their responses to the same socio-environmental stimuli? Second, do differences in their responses to socio-environmental stimuli represent alternative behavioural strategies for social interaction, specifically adaptive strategies to maximize returns from social interactions? To answer these research questions I evaluate how trust and cooperation among liberal and conservative oriented individuals are affected by conditions of social change and inequality. Previous research finds that attitudes and behaviours consistent with the tolerance or intolerance of social change and inequality are strong predictors of ideological orientation across a liberal-conservative scale. Based on a synthesis of behavioural research I construct two theoretical frameworks to account for the adaptive utility associated with a sensitivity to social change and inequality; 1) The Group Reciprocity Hypothesis, and 2) The Social Risk Hypothesis. I test these frameworks using an experimental research design. I predict that, if liberal and conservative orientations are reflective of alternative adaptive strategies to maximize returns from social interaction, then the willingness of liberal and conservative individuals to participate in a social interaction should be differentially affected by conditions related to social change and inequality.