“Theories in Search of a Curve: A Contextual Interpretation of Left Vote.”

[http://courtneybrown.com/classes/Downloads/PrzeworskiSoaresTheoriesSearchCurveAPSR.pdf Przeworkski, Adam, and Glaucio A.D. Soares. 1971. “Theories in Search of a Curve: A Contextual Interpretation of Left Vote.” American Political Science Review 65: 51-65.]

Overview
Voting is an expression of class consciousness when individual is aware of their actual class and is aware of the actual interests of their class.

Individual Vote = objective SE class + perceived interests of class

Two conditions for a group/class to become conscious:


 * 1) political organization of class by leadership
 * 2) communication amoung members in group

Consciousness of group determines consciousness of individual. They measure class consciousness through the proportion of workers who vote left. If 800 out of 1000 workers vote left, it is because the class consiousness influences those 800 individuals. If 200 more workers are hired, then some proportion of those new workers would soon be influenced by class consciousess to vote left.



As the proportion of a single class increases in a city, class consciousness increases in that city. Marx says that misery enhances class consciousness; so as misery increases, consciousness increases.

Place in Literature
Reveals that contextual effects is also studied under the name "structural" effects.

Contextual theories treat social context of individual interactions as a determinant of individual behavior. Voting is an expression of consciousness (of class). Suggests that groups are inseparable form politics.

Argues that ordering the individual first is wrong when trying to understand political behavior: "Lockean assumptions of democratic theory are at variance with political behavior."

Side note about Lockean assumption of democratic theory:  each individual is born with right to life, liberty, and property. This right exists regardless of religion, culture, nationality. If you lived in the wild or state of nature, you would still be  born with the exact same right to life, liberty, and property. Not even a government can remove this right from you. Thus, the right to life, liberty, and property is unaffected by contextual effects. So we should remove this assumption from our understanding of behavior.

scratch pad
Evolution of species is determined by interaction of species's given traits and environment. Eyesight is only an advantage under the right context. If the context is right, eyesight will continue in species.

Evolution of culture is determined by interaction of culture and environment.

...I think there I could create the most comprehensive model of groups and contxtual effects using the model of biological evolution