Ideologia Política Esquerda-Direita – Estudo Exploratório do Eleitorado Português

Abstract

Este artigo pretende averiguar de que forma a dicotomia Esquerda-Direita é um dos elementos tidos em conta no eleitorado, procurando verificar qual a sua compreensão e o seu conhecimento acerca desta díade política. Para isso, recorremos a um inquérito por questionário direcionado para avaliar os valores sociais, económicos e culturais dos cidadãos, de forma a perceber a ideologia política de cada inquirido. As conclusões demonstram que o eleitorado inquirido apresenta dificuldades em compreender, em se orientar e se autoposicionar na escala política Esquerda-Direita.

The Influence of Political Ideology on Fake News Belief: The Portuguese Case

“…This political dyad is markedly distinguished by the way in which they interpret and defend state action in the economic life of society. While the left assumes a policy more in favor of state intervention both in regulating markets and in social services, the right defends greater economic liberalization, with a free, unregulated market, based on a more globalized economy [74]. In addition, opinions and attitudes related to religious beliefs can take on political relevance and be part of social cleavages in some countries [57,67].…”

“…The voter's self-placement on the left-right political scale is related to the proximity to a given political force [102]. In other words, the voters interpret the scheme and places themselves in it according to their party identity, that is, in the field in which they thinks their party fits best [74,98].…”

“…The questionnaire includes an ideological component, with a set of variables, which allow the evaluation of the participants' social and political opinions and attitudes, framed in the left-right political scheme. The questions were elaborated from the European Values Study 2017 database (available online: https://bit.ly/2Zx0dzN, accessed on 25 May 2021) and the questions used by Baptista and Loureiro (2018) [74].…”

“…All questions related to the participant's ideological identification were designed based on this scale, which allowed the classification of the participant's ideology by calculating the average of the responses. The model we use (adapted from [74]) shows the participant's position in light of the main cleavages that distinguish the left and the right in western Europe. Participants were questioned about issues such as moral and religious values, attitudes toward social groups, positioning on the left-right scale, socioeconomic values and libertarian and authoritarian values, i.e., topics that respond to most theories on attitudes and opinions related to the left and right political dichotomy in western European democracies (see Table 1).…”

“…Note: Data adapted by the authors from the European Values Study database and the study byBaptista and Loureiro (2018) [74].…”