POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE OVER TIME AND ACROSS GENERATIONS

The importance of factual political knowledge in affecting informationprocessing and political behavior has recently received considerableattention. However, relatively little is known about the dynamicsof such knowledge over long periods of time. This article utilizesa national two-generation, threewave panel study stretchingfrom 1965 to 1982 to address the issue of dynamics at both theaggregate and individual level. Factual knowledge is dividedinto the domains of governmental mechanics (textbook knowledge),current events (surveillance knowledge), and historical facts(treated here under the rubric of collective memories). Comparisonof the two generations shows that high aggregate continuitysets in by the early stages of midlife, with the young generationshowing sharp losses of textbook knowledge but gains in othertypes. Distinctive generational differences appear with respectto certain events occurring at early, formative life stages.The size of the generation gap depends on time of birth as wellas time of observation. Individual-level continuity for matureadults rivals that occurring for strongly held attitudes. Trendswithin the younger generation indicate the same kind of crystallizationprocess that marks many political attitudes. In view of thehigh degree of individual-and aggregate-level stability amongmature adults, special attention rests on the content of theknowledge that is being hardened and internalized during theearly adult years.     

IDEOLOGICAL THINKING AMONG MASS PUBLICS AND POLITICAL ELITES

Although the characterization of the general public's levelof attitudinal constraint and continuity as modest has restedin part on assumed contrasts with political elites, there arescarcely any systematic, parallel studies of the two populations.This article utilizes comparable measures from cross-sectionaland panel surveys included in the National Election Studiesand in the National Convention Delegate Studies. Overall, politicalparty elites have a vastly more constrained and stable set ofpolitical preferences—in terms of the traditional liberal-conservativedimension—than does the mass public, a conclusion thatapplies whether the test is a demanding one based on opinionsabout policy issues or a less stringent one based on appraisalsof sociopolitical groups and prominent political actors. Stratifyingthe mass public according to level of political activity generatesclear, steplike differences in constraint and continuity, butideological consistency among party elites substantially exceedsthat of even the most active stratum of the mass public. Theseresults demonstrate that, however flawed the standard surveyinstrument may be as a means of ascertaining ideological thinking,it performs exceedingly well in making the kind of distinctionsto be expected on a priori grounds. The contrasts between thetwo populations have strong implications for two-way flows ofcommunication.