Does Ideology Matter?

Over the last three decades, there have been continual debates over the impact of ideology in U.S. presidential elections. The general pattern of the argument was outlined in The American Voter. ¹ The publication of Philip Converse's classic "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics" in 1964, coinciding as it did with the campaign of Barry Goldwater, accelerated the controversy. ² Over the course of the debates, just about every aspect of the definition and measurement of ideology has been explored. ³ But, the question of whether ideology really matters in voters' decision making remains unsettled.