ABSTRACT
According to Walter Dean Burnham, the Michigan group's work established the dominant paradigm for American political science in the field of political behaviorism. By modifying the coding conventions of the Michigan group, Nie, Verba, and Petrocik estimate the number of "ideologues" and "quasiideologues"12 at 20 percent in 1956, as opposed to 51 percent in 1972. The recent increase in level of political competence of US citizens seems an established fact which cannot be dismissed, and which the partisans of the "Michigan paradigm" would be mistaken to ignore. The interpretation of the Michigan researchers may hold for the 1950s but it has become outdated due to recent changes in US society. Once an increase in level of politicization has been established, one might feel that it is the social characteristics of the American voters that have changed, notably their cultural level, which is known to be a determining factor in the process of politicization.
