What Explains Country-Level Differences in Political Belief System Coherence?

• In Event: Social Cleavages, Realignment and Belief Systems

Abstract

Scholars have long tried to identify the factors leading citizens to form coherent political belief
systems. While extensive research explores how distinct social groups differ in degree of attitude
organization, relatively little attention has been given to the possibility that particularities of
political systems may affect belief system coherence. Using network analysis to model political
beliefs systems based on large, representative surveys conducted across 39 European countries
(the European Social Surveys), I show that belief system coherence exhibits both substantial and
systematic cross-national diversity. My second contribution stems from investigating why
differences in belief system organization emerge at the country level in the first place. In particular,
I examine hypotheses related to elite incentives to transmit ideologically coherent information and
conditions that enhance citizen demand for such information. I find belief systems to be more
coherent in countries with greater party-system institutionalization, stronger programmatic citizen-
party linkages, and deeper party-ideological polarization.

Author

• Philip Warncke, University of Limerick