In this study, we investigate four attitudinal structures (including liberal, conservative, and libertarian configurations) associated with two ideological dimensions among American voters and demonstrate that these attitudinal structures are related in expected ways to differential preferences for the values of freedom, order, and equality/caring. Liberals are inclined to trade freedom for equality/caring but not for order, whereas conservatives are their opposites—willing to trade freedom for order but not for equality/caring. In contrast, libertarians are generally less willing than others to trade freedom for either order or equality/caring (although they probably prefer order to equality/caring). The fourth ideological type is more willing than the others to relinquish freedom, preferring both order and equality/caring. Depending on how our results are interpreted, this fourth type may be characterized as either communitarian or humanitarian. These findings help close the gap between unidimensional conceptions and multidimensional evidence of ideological organization in political attitudes by demonstrating that value structure and attitudinal structure are strongly related in two ideological dimensions.

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This article examines the impact of voter reactions to Watergate and the 1973-1974 reces sion, as well as the voters' evaluations of presidential performance and of the presence or absence of an incumbent on individual vote choice in the 1974 House of Representatives elections. The influence of these variables is considered within the context of an attitudinal model of voter choice, using path analysis of responses by voters included in the 1974 University of Michigan National Election Study. Party identification and candidate related variables (incumbency and candidate name familiarity) contribute more to the explanation of vote choice than do voter evaluations of Watergate, the recession, and presidential performance. The total set of explanatory variables are able to account for 43% of the variance in vote choice.

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