Status Consistency and Consistency of Political Beliefs

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This article tests the generalization, often found in the literature, that people who occupy inconsistent statuses are more likely to hold consistent attitudes of either the or the right than those whose statuses are consistent. Using a technique which incorporates socioeconomic status in the analysis, Eitzen concludes that socioeconomic status-not status inconsistencyexplains consistently held liberal or conservative political attitudes. The author is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. S TUDIES of the relationship between status inconsistency and political attitudes have shown that there is a tendency for persons holding inconsistent statuses to be either extremely liberal or conservative when compared to those whose statuses are consistent. Lenski, for example, examined only the social welfare dimension of liberalism-conservatism, and found status inconsistents to be liberal while persons with a high degree of status crystallization were moderate.1 Ringer and Sills, in their study of political extremists in Iran, found status inconsistents overrepresented among extremists of both the left and the right.2 Irwin Goffman found that status inconsistents exhibited a greater preference for change in the power distribution than status consistents did.3 Finally, Rush found that individuals characterized by status inconsistency were more likely to be right-wing extremist in their political attitudes than were individuals characterized by status consistency.4 Although Rush did not ex