Liberalism and Conservatism

Download or read book Liberalism and Conservatism written by Fred N. Kerlinger and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-02-16 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1984, this book proposes a structural theory of social attitudes, presents the empirical evidence for the theory, and defines and explores liberalism and conservatism and the justification for associating social attitudes with these terms. The core ideas are that the structure of social attitudes, those sets of beliefs about social "objects" or referents shared by many or most people of a society, is basically dualistic rather than bipolar, and that the referents of social attitudes are differentially criterial to individuals and groups of individuals. The common belief that social attitudes are polarized, with liberal beliefs at once end of a continuum and conservative beliefs at the other end, is questioned. Instead, liberalism and conservatism are conceived as separate and independent sets of beliefs. The book will elaborate and explain these statements and bring evidence to bear on the empirical validity.