Belief Constraint and Belief Consensus: Toward an Analysis of Social Movement Ideologies--A Research Note

Abstract

The purpose of this research note is to point toward procedures for the comparative analysis of social movement ideologies. The need for such procedures follows from our conviction that, to describe the outcomes of recent social movements, we need to understand their ideologies and the differential impact of those ideologies on subgroups within the general public. We have found, however, that adequate procedures for comparative study of social movement ideologies do not exist in the resource mobilization paradigm currently favored for the study of social movements. The techniques we use to characterize social movement ideology are borrowed from the study of political belief systems in political science (Converse). In adopting these procedures, we identify a methodological flaw in them that is particularly troublesome when studying groups that exhibit a great deal of consensus in their beliefs (e.g., social movements). Converse and his colleagues studied belief system differences between political elites and the public at large. They focused on differences in the consistency or constraint of political beliefs, where constraint is defined as the extent to which various beliefs can be predicted from each other. Typically constraint has been assessed by intercorrelating attitudes on different political issues and then averaging the resulting correlations across issues. Elites have generally been found to show much greater constraint than the public at large, although this conclusion and the procedures employed to reach it have been criticized. The greater belief constraint of political elites is assumed to be due to their high level of political involvement. Political activity and opposition make political issues salient and results in consistency across issues. The factors that lead to high levels of constraint in political elites are also found in social movements. Social movements typically demand high