> Larry Bartels has posted the updated version of his critique of Tom
> Frank's What's The Matter With Kansas on his website (it's the top link,
> ID'd as QJPS 2006). The original is just below it (APSA 2006). The early
> version used a definition of the white working class as white voters in
> the bottom third of the income distribution. Drawing on Ruy Teixeira's
> work, Frank rejected that definition, preferring the lack of a college
> degree as the standard. Neither definition, however, supports the thesis
> of What's The Matter With Kansas.
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Haven't read the revised version, but I still wouldn't be satisfied with the
new definition of working class because it leaves out the fast-growing
segment of those with post-secondary education. Post-secondary education is
what a high school diploma was a generation or two ago - the level of
training required to fill the more highly skilled jobs being created in an
advanced capitalist economy.
Our generation has seen the vast expansion of the state, health, education, technology, and communications sectors and, with it, the mass production of teachers, nurses, researchers, journalists, computer technicians, administrators at all levels of government, etc., the vast majority with community college or university diplomas. All these occupational groups have experienced the impulse to organize unions and engage in collective bargaining and have often done so, sometimes in militant fashion, which is the strongest confirmation of their legitimate working class status. If that impulse was lacking, then you could perhaps group them in with the self-employed petty bourgeoisie or the top managers of large public and private corporations, who don't form unions to collectively press for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. But that's not the case with increasingly large concentrations of technical and professional employees who are following the pattern earlier laid down by craft, industrial, and clerical workers.
Seen in this light, the breakdown of voting preferences would look considerably different, and would probably fit in more with Bartels more than Franks. My impresson is the "new working class", big users of the internet and heavily represented on lists like this one, identifies more with the liberal left than with the Republicans.