Reasoning and Choice: Explorations in Political Psychology (Cambridge Studies in Public Opinion & Political Psychology) (Cambridge Studies in Public Opinion and Political Psychology)
Cambridge University Press, 11/7/1991
EAN 9780521402552, ISBN10: 0521402557
Hardcover, 320 pages, 23.8 x 16 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
Drawing on a multitude of data sets and building on analyses carried out over more than a decade, this book offers a major new theoretical explanation of how ordinary citizens figure out what they favour and oppose politically. Reacting against the conventional wisdom, which stresses how little attention the general public pays to political issues and the lack of consistency in their opinions, the studies presented in this book redirect attention to the processes of reasoning that can be discerned when people are confronted with choices about political issues. These studies demonstrate that ordinary people are in fact capable of reasoning dependably about political issues by the use of judgmental heuristics, even if they have only a limited knowledge of politics and of specific issues.
List of tables and figures
Preface
1. Introduction
major themes
2. The role of heuristics in political reasoning
a theory sketch
3. Values under pressure
AIDS and civil liberties
4. The principle-policy puzzle
the paradox of American racial attitudes
5. Reasoning chains
6. The likability heuristic
7. Democratic values and mass publics
8. Ideological reasoning
9. Information and electoral choice
10. Stability and change in party identification
presidential to off-years
11. The American dilemma
the role of law as a persuasive symbol
12. Ideology and issue persuasibility
dynamics of racial policy attitudes
13. The new racism and the American ethos
14. Retrospect and prospect
Notes
Bibliography
Index