ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 presents my method of measuring ideology. First, I prove that the traditional measure of ideology–the question that asks respondents to place themselves on a liberal–conservative scale–is highly unreliable. Over half of the electorate do not know what a liberal or a conservative is and are guessing when answering the placement question. I then search for a reliable measure of belief systems. I start by using questions that measure beliefs and values, something that would seem to be obvious but studies of belief systems up to now have used questions that measure opinions on contemporary issues as indicators of ideology. I discover two ideological dimensions–a liberal one and a conservative one. When combined, six major sets of belief systems or blocs were found–Strong Liberal, Strong Conservative, Ordinary Liberal, Ordinary Conservative, Bi-ideological, and No Belief System. Ordinary Liberals and Ordinary Conservatives do not have polar opposite beliefs and some (the Bi-ideologicals) have beliefs from both dimensions. The ideological composition of the American electorate cannot be fit onto a simple, one-dimensional, liberal–conservative dimension.
My measure was carefully validated. First, by comparing it with the ideological identity of those who knew what liberal and conservative meant. In only twenty-ninecases among the 4,170 examined, was there a mismatch between belief system and ideological identity. Another example: the bloc of Strong Liberals that I found voted almost 100 percent for the Democratic candidate and Strong Conservatives, almost 100 percent for the Republican.
