The Perceived Structure of Political Relationships

The present report describes an initial phase of a research project which attempts to determine the extent to which perceived similarities and differences expressed in political judgments of various kinds are related to agreements and disagreements about social values. By basic social is meant any statement defining an ethical or morally proper course of action in a situation having crucial implications for the functioning of a society. There are probably a limited set of social values in this sense which most Americans uphold in common and which limit the range of American political opinions. At the same time, however, there are also several value differences of a fundamental nature, which give rise to many of the cleavages in American political life. These value differences may provide stable points of reference underlying a multitude of political disputes and controversies, even those cutting across party lines, and may give continuity to political positions throughout a series of changing issues from decade to decade. Our main study deals with such value differences and their possible relationships to political judgments and orientations. The present report, however, will focus upon the structure of perceived political relationships, as derived from judgments of similarity among 20 political leaders with respect to their political thinking. The purposes of this segment of the project were (a) to ascertain the number and nature of dimensions required to summarize the similarity judgments and (b) to investigate possible group differences in perceptual structures in relation to political affiliation.