Attitudes and Belief Systems Concerning Urban Services

Abstract

STRUCTURAL investigations of the interrelationships among attitudes have been an important aspect of research about political belief systems.1 Patterns of correlations among attitude items can reveal much about widespread belief system processes which underlie attitude organization in the general public. This study investigates citizen attitudes toward urban services to enhance our understanding both of mass belief systems concerning local government and the nature of mass political belief systems in general. Political belief system research has focused primarily on national political issues which are remote from the day-to-day concerns and experiences of most citizens. This research, however, concerns attitudes toward the simplest and most basic activities of local government-the provision of urban services such as polic,e, parks and recreation, and refuse collection. Since immediate matters like these may be more salient to average I The other main types of political belief system research have concerned the temporal stability of attitudes, and levels of political conceptualization revealed by open-ended questions.