It is not true that political beliefs aim at truth, or that many citizens have stable and meaningful political beliefs, or that citizens choose to support political candidates or parties on the basis of their political beliefs

The Point of Political Belief. Michael Hannon & Jeroen de Ridder. Forthcoming in the Routledge Handbook of Political Epistemology. Michael Hannon and Jeroen de Ridder (Eds.). Oct 2020. https://philarchive.org/archive/HANTPO-54

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1321016149224624128

Abstract: An intuitive and widely accepted view is that (a) beliefs aim at truth, (b) many citizens have stable and meaningful political beliefs, and (c) citizens choose to support political candidates or parties on the basis of their political beliefs. We argue that all three claims are false. First, we argue that political beliefs often differ from ordinary world-modelling beliefs because they do not aim at truth. Second, we draw on empirical evidence from political science and psychology to argue that most people lack stable and meaningful political beliefs. Third, we claim that the true psychological basis for voting behavior is not an individual’s political beliefs but rather group identity. Along the way, we reflect on what this means for normative democratic theory.