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This research note uses confirmatory factor analysis to delineate the content and structure of ideological beliefs among delegates to the 1980 Republican national convention, and examines the extent to which such beliefs differ among delegates with amateur and professional activist styles. The analyses indicate that the beliefs of Republican party activists are organized in terms of separate, albeit interrelated, economic and social dimensions. Although the ideological beliefs of amateurs and professionals are similarly structured, the two groups differ significantly in the extremity of their ideological thinking. Since there is considerable dynamism in the proportions of party elites with differing activist styles, present findings may have significant implications for understanding the nature of intraparty issue conflict and the policy choices offered by the parties in successive national elections.
Clarke et al. (Wed,) studied this question.