Political ideology as a matter of political psychological research: the analytical review
https://doi.org/10.31249/poln/2025.04.02
Abstract
The article presents a methodological analysis of research of ideology within the framework of political psychology, as one of the subdisciplines that actively works with this phenomenon empirically. The interpretation of ideology as a set of interrelated beliefs and attitudes that organize individuals’ views on political and social issues, that is more or less conventional in the political-psychological literature, cuts off many components of the concept of ideology that are considered crucially important in other political subdisciplines, like a collective nature of shared beliefs, their connection with the social position of the group, its significance for establishing and maintaining relations of domination, etc. It facilitates focusing on what can be observed empirically – the degree of consistency of individuals’ political attitudes. The article analyzes the discussions about methodology of measuring ideological differences and validity of the left-right dimension in different contexts, about the problem of the “ideological innocence” of the mass public, and offers an overview of the main results of foreign studies of the psychological foundations of political ideology. It discusses how political psychological studies of ideology reinforce or problematize approaches developed in other areas of political science.
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