THE STRUCTURE OF IDEOLOGICAL THINKING IN THE AMERICAN ELECTORATE

Theory: There is systematic variability in the ideological content of political stimuli separate from individuals' capacities and willingness to exhibit ideological thinking in political judgments. Hypotheses: A cumulative structure underlies liberal-conservative terminology as applied to to various political stimuli. This structure is useful for understanding the distribution of and influences on ideological thinking within the American electorate. Methods: Mokken scale analysis of items measuring liberal-conservative consistency in political judgments is followed by regression analysis of individual scale scores. Data for the analysis are taken from the 1984 and 1988 CPS National Election Studies. Results: Ideological consistency in political judgments does conform to the hypothesized cumulative structure. The empirical scales obtained from the analysis show: Systematic differences in the ideological content of political stimuli; much temporal stability, along with changes in the structure of ideological thinking; and factors that affect individual placements along the cumulative dimension within each year.