The decline of longitudinal measures of political support, the rise of political protest, and the increase of open challenges to political authority in the turbulent 1960s led to speculation about the health of the American political system. This analysis addresses this question by examining the measurement of political support and its dynamics over time. Support is defined in terms of three empirically verified dimensions--efficacy, trust and responsiveness. / This analysis uses SRC/CPS election survey data for the years 1964-1980 and LISREL to first examine lingering measurement questions about the indicators of support. Second, it examines cross-sectional differences in three dimensions of support--efficacy, trust and responsiveness--looking for changes in relationships across time. Third, different explanations of longitudinal changes in the three support dimensions are examined. Finally, using the 1972-74-76 SRC/CPS panel, the analysis looks at turnover in support on the individual level. / The reexamination of the measurement questions shows that the SRC/CPS questions define three separate dimensions of support and trust represents attitudes toward the political system. The analysis of the cross-sectional differences indicates that many of the inconsistencies in the findings in this area are due to methodological differences between the studies. Over-time aggregate declines in trust and responsiveness are due to period effects. Declines in efficacy, however, are attributable to generational replacement, with newer generations displaying lower efficacy levels than previous generations. On the individual level, efficacy and trust are more stable than has previously been speculated. / This analysis finds no evidence that policy dissatisfaction, economic dissatisfaction or incumbent evaluations have a direct effect on changes in trust. The strongest predictors of over time changes in this attitude are previous trust attitudes and evaluations of the performance of political institutions. This suggests that trust attitudes are composed of retrospective judgments of the operation of the political system as well as current evalutions of political institutions. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: A, page: 3178. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75917 |
| Contributors | PARKER, SUZANNE LEE., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 309 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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