Pros Of Conservatism

What makes a state liberal? How does being categorized as a liberal region correlate with political culture? Liberalism is defined as a state’s tendency to expand welfare benefits, regulate business, adopt progressive state income taxes, and generally use the resources of government to achieve social change (PSC, 15). Compared to more conservative beliefs, liberalism is aimed toward the achievement of equal opportunity and equality for all citizens. Political Science analysis’ construct new policy liberalism rankings for states based on key ideological issues like gun control, abortion laws, welfare eligibility, work requirements, tax progressivity, and unionization. A states’ ideological identification, whether conservative or liberal, closely
Comparing these statistics to the percentages of bachelors’ degree rankings, Massachusetts and Connecticut reappear in the top five for educational rankings. Looking specifically at Massachusetts, the state ranks 1st in both identifying as liberalism and in percentage with bachelor’s degree. The correlation directly points to the idea that the more educated a state is, the more likely it is that the region supports liberalism. At the other end of the spectrum, Mississippi ranks 46th on the chart of identifying as liberal and 48th on the chart of percentage with bachelors’ degree. These two specific states serve as a representative for the rankings of the other listed forty-eight states. It is presumable to draw a line between the percentage of degree-holding citizens and the ideology behind liberalism. According to PSC, there has been a general increase in the educational levels of the U.S. adult population. For example, in 1970 there was about 11% of U.S. adult citizens who obtained an education of four years or more of college; by about 2011 that figure rose to 30%. This increase in educational levels has aspired population growth, income, and continuing education all over the U.S. The aspects that came out of educational growth relate directly back to liberalisms’ key
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Washington, and New York all rank in the top ten spots on both percentage of residents identifying as liberal and personal income per capita charts in PSC. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the state of Alabama ranks 49th on identifying with liberalism and 42nd on personal income per capita. According to PSC, capita income represents worker productivity and the amount of wealth within a region. When looking at liberalism’s key concepts, the connection of wealth to the ideology can be made through the regulation of business. Generally, wealth is an acquired and protected position in society. One can infer that wealthier states support the idea of big government regulation and taxation because it can help the ‘elites’ remain elite. It’s important to point out that wealth doesn’t always categorize a region as liberal, rather the charts and concepts of liberalism point to this