Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T08:47:23.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Sources of Political Tolerance: A Multivariate Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

John L. Sullivan ,
George E. Marcus ,
Stanley Feldman  and
James E. Piereson
John L. Sullivan
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
George E. Marcus
Affiliation:
Williams College
Stanley Feldman
Affiliation:
Brown University
James E. Piereson
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Over the past 25 years a number of conclusions concerning the development of political tolerance have come to be well accepted in the literature on political behavior. There are, however, two persisting problems with the studies that have generated these findings: they have relied on a content-biased measure of tolerance, and have failed to examine well specified models of the factors leading to tolerance. In this article we report the results of an analysis of the determinants of political tolerance using a content-controlled measure of tolerance and a more fully specified multivariate model. The parameters of the model are estimated from a national sample of the U.S. The results indicate the explanatory power of two political variables, the level of perceived threat and the commitment to general norms, and psychological sources of political tolerance. Social and demographic factors are found to have no direct effect and little indirect influence on the development of political tolerance.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 75 , Issue 1 , March 1981 , pp. 92 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1981 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cutler, Stephen J., and Kaufman, Robert L. (1975). “Cohort Changes in Political Attitudes: Tolerance of Ideological Nonconformity.” Public Opinion Quarterly 39: 69–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erikson, Robert S., and Luttbeg, Norman R. (1973). American Public Opinion: Its Origins, Content and Impact. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Eysenck, Hans Murgen (1954). The Psychology of Politics. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald (1977). The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jöreskog, K. G. (1969). “A General Approach to Confirmatory Maximum Likelihood Factor Analysis.” Psychometrika 34: 183–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jöreskog, K. G. (1970). “A General Method for Analysis of Covariance Structures.” Biometrika 57: 239–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jöreskog, K. G. (1973). “A General Method for Estimating a Linear Structural Equation System.” In Goldberger, A. S. and Duncan, O. D. (eds.), Structural Equation Models in the Social Sciences. New York: Seminar Press.Google Scholar
Jöreskog, K. G., and Sörbom, Dag (1975). “Statistical Models and Methods for Analysis of Longitudinal Data.” Research Report 75-1. Uppsala University, Statistics Department.Google Scholar
Korman, A. K. (1971). “Black Experience, Socialization, and Civil Liberties.” Journal of Social Issues 31: 137–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knutson, Jeanne (1972). The Human Basis of the Polity. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.Google Scholar
Lawrence, David (1976). “Procedural Norms and Tolerance: A Reassessment.” American Political Science Review 70: 80–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin, and Raab, Earl (1970). The Politics of Unreason. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Marcus, George E., Piereson, James and Sullivan, John L. (1980). “Rural-Urban Differences in Tolerance: Confounding Problems of Conceptualization and Measurement.” Rural Sociology 45: 731–37.Google Scholar
Marsh, Alan (1977). Protest and Political Consciousness. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Martin, John G., and Westie, Frank E. (1959). “The Tolerant Personality.” American Sociological Review 24: 521–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClosky, Herbert (1964). “Consensus and Ideology in American Politics.” American Political Science Review 58: 361–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClosky, H., Hoffman, P. J. and O'Hara, R. (1960). “Issue Conflict and Consensus Among Party Leaders and Followers.” American Political Science Review 54: 406–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nunn, Clyde Z., Crockett, Harry J. and Williams, J. Allen (1978). Tolerance for Nonconformity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole (1970). Participation and Democratic Theory. London: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pennock, J. Roland (1979). Democratic Political Theory. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Prothro, James W., and Grigg, Charles W. (1960). “Fundamental Principles of Democracy: Bases of Agreement and Disagreement.” Journal of Politics 22: 276–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rokeach, M., (1960). The Open and Closed Mind. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Morris (1956). “Misanthropy and Political Ideology.” American Sociological Review 21: 690–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Peter H. (1971). “Prestige in the American Occupational Structure.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Dept. of Sociology, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Sanford, Nevitt (1973). “Authoritarian Personality in Contemporary Perspective.” In Knutson, J. (ed.), Handbook of Political Psychology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul (1975). Personality and Democratic Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Stouffer, Samuel (1955). Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Sullivan, John L., and Feldman, Stanley (1979). Multiple Indicators. Sage University Papers on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, 07-015. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, J. L., Marcus, G. E., Piereson, J. and Feldman, S. (1979). “The Development of Political Tolerance: The Impact of Social Class, Personality and Cognition.” International Journal of Political Education 2: 115–39.Google Scholar
Sullivan, J. L., Piereson, J. and Marcus, G. E. (1979). “An Alternative Conceptualization of Political Tolerance: Illusory Increases, 1950s-1970s.” American Political Science Review 73: 781–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, J. L., Piereson, J. and Marcus, G. E. (1982). Political Tolerance and American Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Thompson, Dennis (1970). The Democratic Citizen. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Walker, Jack L. (1966). “A Critique of the Elitist Theory of Democracy.” American Political Science Review 60: 289–95.Google Scholar
Werts, C. E., Linn, R. L., and Jöreskog, K. G. (1971). “Estimating the Parameters of Path Models Involving Unmeasured Variables.” In Blalock, H. M. (ed.), Causal Models in the Social Sciences. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Wheaton, Blair, Muthen, Bengt, Alwin, Duane F., and Summers, Gene F. (1977). “Assessing Reliability and Stability in Panel Models.” In Heise, David R. (ed.), Sociological Methodology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Zalkind, Sheldon, Gaugler, Edward and Schwartz, Ronald (1975). “Civil Liberties, Attitudes and Personality Measures: Some Exploratory Research.” Journal of Social Issues 31: 77–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zellman, G., and Sears, David (1971). “Childhood Origins of Tolerance for Dissent.” Journal of Social Issues 27: 109–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

A correction has been issued for this article:

Erratum