| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Public Opinion Quarterly 56:419-441 (1992)
© 1992 American Association for Public Opinion Research
IDEOLOGICAL THINKING AMONG MASS PUBLICS AND POLITICAL ELITES
M. KENT JENNINCS is professor of political science at the University of Michigan and at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The National Election Studies and the cross-sectional portions of the National Convention Delegates data sets used in this article are available from the archives of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. The support of the Russell Sage Foundation for the collection of the delegate data is gratefully acknowledged, as is the technical assistance of Donna Wasserman in performing the data management and analysis on which this article is based.
Although the characterization of the general public's level of attitudinal constraint and continuity as modest has rested in part on assumed contrasts with political elites, there are scarcely any systematic, parallel studies of the two populations. This article utilizes comparable measures from cross-sectional and panel surveys included in the National Election Studies and in the National Convention Delegate Studies. Overall, political party elites have a vastly more constrained and stable set of political preferences—in terms of the traditional liberal-conservative dimension—than does the mass public, a conclusion that applies whether the test is a demanding one based on opinions about policy issues or a less stringent one based on appraisals of sociopolitical groups and prominent political actors. Stratifying the mass public according to level of political activity generates clear, steplike differences in constraint and continuity, but ideological consistency among party elites substantially exceeds that of even the most active stratum of the mass public. These results demonstrate that, however flawed the standard survey instrument may be as a means of ascertaining ideological thinking, it performs exceedingly well in making the kind of distinctions to be expected on a priori grounds. The contrasts between the two populations have strong implications for two-way flows of communication.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  A. M. McCright and R. E. Dunlap Social Movement Identity and Belief Systems: An Examination of Beliefs about Environmental Problems within the American Public Public Opin Q, December 1, 2008; 72(4): 651 - 676. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. M. Federico and M. C. Schneider Political Expertise and the Use of Ideology: Moderating Effects of Evaluative Motivation Public Opin Q, June 30, 2007; (2007) nfm010v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 L. Hooghe What Drives Euroskepticism?: Party-Public Cueing, Ideology and Strategic Opportunity European Union Politics, March 1, 2007; 8(1): 5 - 12. [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 P. Liberman Punitiveness and U.S. Elite Support for the 1991 Persian Gulf War Journal of Conflict Resolution, February 1, 2007; 51(1): 3 - 32. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. I. Abramowitz and K. L. Saunders Exploring the Bases of Partisanship in the American Electorate: Social Identity vs. Ideology Political Research Quarterly, June 1, 2006; 59(2): 175 - 187. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. Scully and S. C. Patterson Ideology, Partisanship and Decision-Making in a Contemporary American Legislature Party Politics, March 1, 2001; 7(2): 131 - 155. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Josefson An Exploration of the Stability of Partisan Stereotypes in the United States Party Politics, July 1, 2000; 6(3): 285 - 304. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 N. Kwak The Roles of the Media and Mediated Opinion Leadership in the Public Opinion Process: A Content Analysis of a Political Incident in Korea International Communication Gazette, April 1, 1999; 61(2): 175 - 191. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Forrest and G. N. Marks The Mass Media, Election Campaigning and Voter Response: The Australian Experience Party Politics, January 1, 1999; 5(1): 99 - 114. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Z. PAN and G. M. KOSICKI Assessing News Media Influences on the Formation of Whites' Racial Policy Preferences Communication Research, April 1, 1996; 23(2): 147 - 178. [Abstract]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. S. Lee Regional Subcultures as Revealed by Magazine Circulation Patterns Cross-Cultural Research, May 1, 1995; 29(2): 91 - 120. [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 G. Evans and J. Durant The relationship between knowledge and attitudes in the public understanding of science in Britain Public Understanding of Science, January 1, 1995; 4(1): 57 - 74. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|