ABSTRACT
This chapter explores variations in the industrial ideologies of a major section of the working class, drawing on the results of our empirical research. Ideology was measured by responses to nine items designed to reveal the worker's position on a left-right ideological dimension. Since membership was more or less compulsory in some places the effect of ideology on membership was necessarily limited. In view of the general measurement problems, the correlation with generalized demands' is remarkably high and stands out among the great number of correlations we performed of ideology with other variables and between these variables. The link between left-wing ideology and general discontent with the workers' lot emerges clearly. By far the most important influence on ideology is generalized demands, and through this operates one of the most important influences of age. Age has a much greater direct effect on job satisfaction than on life satisfaction, and the influence on ideology through the latter appears negligible.
