The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics (1964)

Abstract

This article makes no pretense of surpassing such limitations. At the \nsame time, our substantive concern forces upon us an unusual concern with measurement strategies, not simply because we propose to deal \nwith belief systems or ideologies, but also because of the specific questions that we shall raise about them. Our focus in this article is upon \ndifferences in the nature of belief systems held on the one hand by elite \npolitical actors and, on the other, by the masses that appear to be "numbered" within the spheres of influence of these belief systems. It is our \nthesis that there are important and predictable differences in ideational \nworlds as we progress downward through such "belief strata" and that \nthese differences, while obvious at one level, are easily overlooked and \nnot infrequently miscalculated. The fact that these ideational worlds differ in character poses problems of adequate representation and measurement.

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