Ideological constraint, political interest and gender: a Swedish‐American comparison

Abstract

Abstract. American and Swedish university and gymnasia students were examined in order to discover whether or not evidence could be found for higher levels of: a) ideological coherence, b) political interest, c) ideological variance, and d) strength of interface between political party preference and political self‐concept on the one hand and socio‐political attitudes on the other for Swedish citizens as compared to American citizens. The results confirmed the hypotheses in almost all cases and the results are discussed in terms of differences between the nations’ political party environments.

Attitude constraint and stability among elite and mass in Sweden

“…Although any bit of data is questionable and subject to alternative interpretations, there is now an ac-cumulation of evidence which, taken together, is quite strong. Previously, it had been shown that attitudes among people in Sweden were more constrained and stable than those of people in the USA (Granberg & Holmberg 1988;Niemi & Westholm 1984;Sidanius et al 1987). This is what would be expected in comparisons of people living in different political systems with a strong and weak party system, respectively.…”

“…Niemi & Westholm (1984) compared US and Swedish panels and reported that Swedes held more stable attitudes on contemporary political issues than people in the USA. In a similar vein, it was shown that the attitudes of people in Sweden were considerably more constrained than those of their American counterparts (Granberg & Holmberg 1988;Sidanius, Brewer, Banks & Ekehammar 1987).…”