Political ideology and labor activism. A multi-country analysis.

Research on political ideology and labor activism is limited to data from Western countries, used general operationalization of ideology, and focused predominantly on union membership as the outcome variable. In contrast, present studies examined the relationship between several dimensions of ideology (general, economic, and cultural) and various aspects of labor activism in countries representing diverse contexts. Using data from three multi-country surveys (N = 60,414), Study 1 found that ideology predicted union membership within the European context but showed no significant association in the global or U.S. context. In Studies 2a (N = 1,620) and 2b (N = 2,351) using data from the U.S., Poland and India, left economic ideology emerged as the most consistent predictor of labor activism, as well as positive attitudes toward unions in the U.S. and Poland, but not in India. These findings highlight the importance of extending research to non-WEIRD countries to better understand labor activism.