1st Edition
The Nature of Belief Systems Reconsidered
In the foundational document of modern public-opinion research, Philip E. Converse’s "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics" (1964) established the U.S. public’s startling political ignorance. This volume makes Converse’s long out-of-print article available again and brings together a variety of scholars, including Converse himself, to reflect on Converse’s findings after nearly half a century of further research. Some chapters update findings on public ignorance. Others outline relevant research agendas not only in public-opinion and voter-behavior studies, but in American political development, "state theory," and normative theory. Three chapters grapple with whether voter ignorance is "rational." Several chapters consider the implications of Converse’s findings for the democratic ideal of a well-informed public; others focus on the political "elite," who are better informed but quite possibly more dogmatic than members of the general public. Contributors include Scott Althaus, Stephen Earl Bennett, Philip E. Converse, Samuel DeCanio, James S. Fishkin, Jeffrey Friedman, Doris A. Graber, Russell Hardin, Donald Kinder, Arthur Lupia, Samuel L. Popkin, Ilya Somin, and Gregory W. Wawro.
This book was originally published as a special issue of Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society.
Introduction
1. Democratic Competence in Normative and Positive Theory: Neglected Implications of "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics"
Jeffrey Friedman, government, University of Texas, Austin
Research
2. The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics
Philip E. Converse, political science, University of Michigan
Symposium
3. False Starts, Dead Ends, and New Opportunities in Public-Opinion Research
Scott Althaus, political science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
4. Democratic Competence, before Converse and After
Stephen Earl Bennett, political science, University of Cincinnati
5. Mass Opinion and American Political Development
Samuel DeCanio, political science, Yale University
6. Beyond Polling Alone: The Quest for an Informed Public
James S. Fishkin, communications, Stanford University
7. Government by the People, for the People, Twenty-First Century Style
Doris A. Graber, political science, University of Chicago
8. Ignorant Democracy
Russell Hardin, political science, New York University
9. Belief Systems Today
Donald Kinder, political science, University of Michigan
10. How Elitism Undermines the Study of Voter Competence
Arthur Lupia, political science, University of Michigan
11. The Factual Basis of "Belief Systems": A Reassessment
Samuel L. Popkin, political science, University of California, San Diego
12. Knowledge about Ignorance: New Directions in the Study of Political Information
Ilya Somin, George Mason University School of Law
13. The Rationalizing Public
Gregory J. Wawro, political science, Columbia University
Reply
14. Democratic Theory and Electoral Reality
Philip E. Converse, political science, University of Michigan
Biography
Jeffrey Friedman, a visiting scholar in the Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin, received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University. He is the author of Engineering the Financial Crisis (Penn, 2011, with Wladimir Kraus) and the editor of The Rational Choice Controversy: Economic Models of Politics Reconsidered (Yale, 1996), What Caused the Financial Crisis (Penn, 2011), and Rethinking the Rhetorical Presidency (Routledge, 2011).
Shterna Friedman received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, University of Iowa. They are, respectively, the editor and managing editor of Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society and the co-editors of Political Knowledge (Routledge, 2012).
