| Although the literature concerning political belief systems is vast, much remains to be settled in the field. Progress in determining whether the electorate holds meaningful attitudes on important issues has been impeded in part by methodological problems. This study, which takes advantage of an existing data set, attempts to address these methodological difficulties by the use of statistical techniques more suitable for qualitative survey data: log-linear and latent structure methods. Four archetypal theories of political belief systems are assessed with these methods--liberalism-conservatism, social and economic liberalism-conservatism, cultural theory, and dogmatism. The analysis reveals that, while each theory has something important to offer concerning the nature of political belief systems, none is sufficient by itself: of the four, social and economic liberalism-conservatism comes closest to describing the belief systems of political elites and the public.;The investigation also devotes a chapter to exploring and comparing the political attitudes of elected representatives in Canada. Latent structure analysis shows that each party must accommodate a range of opinions, and reveals a fair degree of disagreement within each party respecting certain political attitudes.;Finally, the study compares political attitudes of an elite group (legislators) and the public, in general and within parties. Latent structure analysis shows that the parties are generally representative of their followers, but that the public's attitudes are often more conservative than are their leaders. |
