The structure of mass beliefand its impact on voters’ choices

Abstract

T h e debate about electoral behavior in the United States, to put it in a nutshell, hovers around two main conflicting positions. Som e authors are critical o f citizens’ knowledge about the po­litical system. Others have a more com passionate view about the cognitive capacities o f citi­zens. The purpose o f this literature review is to explore both sides o f this debate and to focus on the implications o f the structure o f mass beliefs in the voting decisions o f citizens. T h is re­view starts by outlining the m ain controversies, basically the Converse/Lane debate about how coherent and consistent citizens’ beliefs system are, and then moves on to discuss recent stu­dies that attempt either to review and improve Converse’s positions or sim ply to reject them as plain wrong and propose rival theoretical explanations, not necessarily in the direction pro­posed by Lane. Finally, I review the literature on the impact o f the structure o f mass belief in citizens’ ability to learn about and to choose candidates.