ARENAS AND ATTITUDES - A NOTE ON POLITICAL EFFICACY IN A FEDERAL SYSTEM

Most research on political attitudes has ignored the influence of political context on attitude structure. This paper investigates political efficacy at the national and provincial levels of the Canadian federal system using 1983, 1984, and 1988 survey data. Confirmatory factor analyses of alternative measurement models reveal that efficacious attitudes are structured in terms of separate internal and external factors at the two levels of government. The degree of articulation in attitude structure varies strongly and inversely with regional differences in the similarity of national and provincial party systems.