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The Selectively Political Citizen?

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  • CLEM BROOKS

    (University of California, Berkeley)

Abstract

Since Converse's pioneering work, social scientists have had to grapple with a perplexing phenomenon: the apparent willingness of many citizens to express an opinion to survey researchers when they in fact have no corresponding attitude. New approaches to measuring latent structures make it possible to address some of the controversies surrounding nonattitudes and to probe the empirical adequacy of Converse's account of mass political attitudes. This article extends the work of Duncan, Stenbeck, and Brody by analyzing Converse's Black-White model and alternative latent trait models when the American Panel Study data have not been recoded as dichotomies or trichotomies. The fit that Converse reported for his Black-White model is found to be the product of an invalid recoding scheme. Latent trait models provide a superior fit to the data. Although latent trait models do not allow researchers to classify respondents into logical classes of attitude (or nonattitude) holders, modeling results indirectly suggest that nonattitude holders were not a majority on any issue. Respondents' tendency to choose ideologically consistent categories is found to be limited. The relevance of these findings to the idea of a “selectively political citizen†is discussed in conclusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Clem Brooks, 1994. "The Selectively Political Citizen?," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 22(4), pages 419-459, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:22:y:1994:i:4:p:419-459
    DOI: 10.1177/0049124194022004001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Converse, Philip E. & Markus, Gregory B., 1979. "Plus ça change…: The New CPS Election Study Panel," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 73(1), pages 32-49, March.
    2. Noel Cressie & Paul Holland, 1983. "Characterizing the manifest probabilities of latent trait models," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 129-141, March.
    3. Geoff Masters, 1982. "A rasch model for partial credit scoring," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 47(2), pages 149-174, June.
    4. David Andrich, 1978. "A rating formulation for ordered response categories," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 43(4), pages 561-573, December.
    5. Sniderman, Paul M. & Fletcher, Joseph F. & Russell, Peter H. & Tetlock, Philip E. & Gaines, Brian J., 1991. "The Fallacy of Democratic Elitism: Elite Competition and Commitment to Civil Liberties," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 349-370, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Brooks, 1995. "The Economic Polity Of Farm Policy: Comment," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 398-402, September.

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