Liberal or conservative, left or right: the identification with ideological labels by puerto rican legislators

Abstract

Research on the use of ideological labels has focused on their meaning to mass publics and how elites transmit this information to them. Less emphasis has been placed on the question of how elites come to use ideological labels. In addition, little is known about the use of ideological labels by Puerto Rican elites. Using a database of Puerto Rican legislators, I study the factors that influence their willingness to label themselves as liberals or conservatives and left or right. These labels are not common to the island’s political discourse but are quite common in the political language of the United States (at least the liberal/conservative labels). Three hypotheses are proposed to explain the identification with these labels: exposure to the U.S. political culture, affective attachment to the United States, and legislative experience. I test these hypotheses using logit equations. The results show that, especially for the liberal-conservative labels, direct and indirect exposure to the U.S, affective attachment to that country, and legislative experience are important predictors of the identification with these labels. The findings have important implications for the study of
the evolution of ideological labels in elites and the impact of political institutions on its members