Class Notes 02 12 13 Core values make up idealogy Classify people on conservative to liberal knowledge Hard to apply on individuals who have little political Decline to choose which side Works with people with high political knowledge Terminology of ideology Converse had pessimistic outlook on public ideology idealogues analyze parties through abstract value Most educated individuals 3 High school degrees rest college degree Vote Most partisan Most consistent in positions Group benefits Medium educated Nature of the times Less educated When issues are not related consistency ideology decreases More information More Sophisticated More consistent 02 14 13 Social Welfare party s were different on Parties and people have become more polarized throughout the times 02 28 13 Whites gradually changed opinion to mirror African American opinions Reading Notes Chapter 5 Ideological Innocence and Critiques Political Ideology An interrelated set of attitudes and values about the proper goals of society and how they should be achieved Dominant US ideologies Liberalism Conservatism Aspects of ideology Attitudes coherent and related to one another Not just any attitudes specifically beliefs on society and proper role of government Conservatives Features Individual responsibility Order Tradition Minimal government mostly economy Liberalist Features Government intervention necessary Equality Openness to opposing views Civil Rights Democratic theorists believe that citizens need to communicate effectively so that they can evaluate the performance of elected officials Converse Elites more likely to organize politics into liberal conservative Liberal and Conservative carry little meaning to normal people view than normal people o Lack of understanding Converse s Claim Ideological Innocence Goal of research examine the belief systems of citizens and elites Belief system configuration of ideas and attitudes in which the elements are bound together by some form of constraint or functional interdependence o Basically ideology Constraint degree to which able to predict a certain attitude of someone knowing their attitude towards different political objects o Peoples political attitudes are related to eachther because they come from an overarching worldview Do People Demonstrate Ideological Thinking o Conclusion Elites much more likely to possess belief o Open ended questions allows respondents to use their o 5 groups in study systems compared with the general public own terms and language Ideologues Rare individuals who use the liberal conservatist view Knowledgeable on political positions Near Ideologues Not so many who used ideological labels but were no fully understanding meaning of terms or did not use ideology for primary tool in evaluating politics Group Interest BIG individuals tend to discuss the parties and candidates in terms of whether they favor interests of groups Nature of the times evaluated current party in charge during peace and prosperity more favorably than those during wars or downturns No Issue Content Bigger than ideologues near ideologues evaluated parties and candidates on grounds other than issues unsure of what parties stood for or did not follow politics close enough to discuss Used Personal characteristics to judge o New research discovered in 2000 there were more ideologues and near ideologues than before but group interest and nature of times still largest Do People Recognize Ideological Terms and conservative o Assessed degree people could recognize terms liberal o 40 couldn t o 17 Did both but meanings were incorrect o 11 5 Did well o Normally judge on money spending o Although already realized many don t use liberal Are Individuals Attributes Constrained and Stable conservative view maybe constraint remains does exist although not in the liberal conservative view o Found low correlations among public views on issues constrained along any dimension o Led him to dismiss possibility that public s beliefs are o Correlation higher among elites than public o Studied attitude stability o Concluded people lack knowledge and offer Low meaningless opinions Group as a Source of Belief Constraint o Source of belief constraint came from attitudes towards o High correlation when asked about AA rights in work social groups and housing and School desegregation Concluded ideologically conservative are rare o Public does not think about parties and candidates o Recognition and correct use of the terms liberal and o Constraint across a variety of issue positions is low o Attitude consistency over time is low o Citizens appear to organize their political thinking on views of prominent groups Critiques of Converse Political Context times o Believed that study was influenced by nature of the Non ideological times led to low levels of ideological thinking o Consensual politics disagreements between parties were minor political environment not dominated by discussion of conflictual issues and public not very tuned in to politics environment low economic turns unrest become more strained over time o Ideologically contentious conflict stressful o Study concluded that public s belief systems did along a liberal conservative continuum worded survey Public beliefs were becoming more organized Proved that higher correlations due to how ANES Study proved inaccurate o Constraints in Converse view Stronger opinions in times of turmoil Constraint and stability higher for certain issues Religion Morality Civil Rights The Format of Survey Questions o ANES used Likert question styles o Likert question gives a statement then asks whether respondent agrees or disagrees o Changed so that respondent was presented two sides of an issue and then asked if they favored one or other o Competing options format provides a counterargument to first statement o Why does the format effect attitude constraint Likert question promotes agreement with the single stated position because no other options are provided People tend to just agree position Competing options format provides opposing Respondents can ponder on which of the Reliable options best suits their position Better assessments Simpler o Study resulted in correlations were higher in competing options format than single statement format This was a blow to original study trying to Change in political constraint produced by Ended showing the was no change even with the o Always account for measurement error when surveying o Conclusion Converse still right that