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What Explains Country-Level Differences in Political Belief System Coherence?

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Title: What Explains Country-Level Differences in Political Belief System Coherence?
Authors: Warncke, Philip (AUTHOR)
Source: Political Behavior. Dec2025, Vol. 47 Issue 4, p1853-1876. 24p.
Subjects: Coherence (Philosophy), Political parties, Political doctrines, Social context, Public opinion polls, Political knowledge, Countries, Communication network analysis
Abstract: Although public opinion research has made tremendous progress in identifying the conditions under which citizens adopt coherent political beliefs, comparatively little attention has been paid to the role of national political context in shaping mass belief system coherence. Using dedicated statistical network models built from representative surveys conducted across 38 European countries between 2002 and 2020, this article demonstrates that national-level attitude systems vary substantially and systematically in overall constraint. Drawing on both a novel, network-derived measure of belief system coherence and node-level centrality metrics, this paper further shows that political systems characterized by programmatic linkages between citizens and political parties sustain far more coherent mass beliefs than those in which party-citizen interactions typically involve personal favors. Furthermore, just under one third of the belief-structuring effect of party-citizen relations is mediated by the relative centrality of citizens' symbolic ideological attachments within national-level belief systems. Abstract ideological summary positions are not central to all belief systems, but where they are, mass beliefs tend to be more coherent overall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Political Behavior is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
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  Data: Although public opinion research has made tremendous progress in identifying the conditions under which citizens adopt coherent political beliefs, comparatively little attention has been paid to the role of national political context in shaping mass belief system coherence. Using dedicated statistical network models built from representative surveys conducted across 38 European countries between 2002 and 2020, this article demonstrates that national-level attitude systems vary substantially and systematically in overall constraint. Drawing on both a novel, network-derived measure of belief system coherence and node-level centrality metrics, this paper further shows that political systems characterized by programmatic linkages between citizens and political parties sustain far more coherent mass beliefs than those in which party-citizen interactions typically involve personal favors. Furthermore, just under one third of the belief-structuring effect of party-citizen relations is mediated by the relative centrality of citizens' symbolic ideological attachments within national-level belief systems. Abstract ideological summary positions are not central to all belief systems, but where they are, mass beliefs tend to be more coherent overall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Political Behavior is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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              Text: Dec2025
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