Ideological Perceptions and Political Judgement: Some Problems of Concept and Measurement

Much recent research on "political ideology" and "mass belief systems" has been in response to the issues raised by Philip Converse (1964) in his classic article on the nature of mass belief systems. We focus on two lines of inquiry spawned by Converse's article. We deal fir...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Political methodology 1977-01, Vol.4 (1), p.77-102
Main Authors: Coveyou, Michael R., Piereson, James
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Average linear density
Conceptualization
Conservatism
Correlations
Judgment
Liberalism
Political attitudes
Political candidates
Political ideologies
Political parties
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Summary:Much recent research on "political ideology" and "mass belief systems" has been in response to the issues raised by Philip Converse (1964) in his classic article on the nature of mass belief systems. We focus on two lines of inquiry spawned by Converse's article. We deal first with conceptual problems in the study of structural properties of political belief systems, particularly the relationship between "constraint" and "complexity." We argue that these concepts are not necessarily contradictory, but do involve different levels of analysis and thus different measurement procedures. Second, using survey data from the 1972 election, we search for evidence that individuals use the liberal-conservative dimension. We find that large proportions of the electorate evaluate parties and candidates in ways consistent with its use. Some connections between these two lines of inquiry are considered.
ISSN:0162-2021