Philip E. Converse, "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics," 1964
- "A term like "ideology" has been thoroughly muddied by diverse uses.
We shall depend instead upon the term "belief systems" ... We define a belief
system as a configuration of ideas and attitudes in which
the elements are bound together by some form of constraint or
functional interdependence." (p.207)
- Constraint Does Not Have to be Strictly Logical -
"…few belief systems of any range at all depend for their constraint upon
[strict] logic in this classical sense. … What is important
is that the elites familiar with the total shapes of these belief systems
have experienced them as logically constrained clusters of ideas,
within which one part necessarily follows from another." (p.210-211)
- From an observer's point of view, constraint means
that certain issue positions are bundled together, and
the knowledge of one or two issue positions makes the remaining positions
very predictable.