The organization of political belief networks: A cross-country analysis

Abstract

Studies on mass opinion conceptualize political ideology as an interrelated network of attitudes, beliefs and values. Using the joint dataset of European Values Study and World Values Survey collected between 2017 and 2020, I ask whether the organization of political ideology depends on the structure of political field. Consistent with the theories of social constraint, I find that in countries with high institutionalization of political parties, the organization of political opinions is more likely to be dense and consolidated. These patterns are robust to a variety of predictors between countries and the results are not sensitive to sampling variability or item selection.

Keywords: Belief systems; Constraint; Political ideology; Political parties.