On the Conceptualization and Measurement of Political Tolerance

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3380561
AutoresJames L Gibson (0000-0002-2571-6596, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee), Richard D Bingham (University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee)
Ano1982
Volume76
Fascículo3
Páginas603-620
Data de publicação1982-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1963734
OpenAlexW4252296122
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas29
Referências citadas9

Research on political tolerance has made substantial progress in recent years by improving the measures used to gauge public opinion. Much attention has been devoted to developing indicators that control for group affect. Controls for activity affect have not been pursued as vigorously. Indeed, much of the progress has been along the lines of specifying tolerance for unpopular political minorities rather than tolerance for unorthodox or threatening political activities. More generally, tolerance research has not been sensitive to the variety of contextual factors that determine citizen attitudes in civil-liberties disputes.A new approach to measuring political tolerance is presented in this article. The measures developed in this approach disaggregate the traditional measures of tolerance (such as Stouffer's (1955) support for "a communist making a speech in your community"). In particular, scales measuring support for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of political association are presented. As multiple-indicator measures posing conflicts among values, these scales are related to traditional tolerance measures. However, because they reflect the complexity and conflict associated with actual civil-liberties disputes, they will no doubt serve as better predictors of opinions and behaviors in actual disputes

Affect (linguistics · Civil liberties · Conceptualization · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Variety (cybernetics · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology