Public Support for the Party System

本研究是对一般民众对政党和政党制度态度的纵向研究的延伸和扩展。 本研究探讨了三种公众对政党的取向。 第一个包含了PI以前使用的党派识别和政治独立性的几项措施。 第二个重点是公众对两党制的反应和第三方的进入，以挑战目前的政党双寡头垄断。 最后一套公共取向转向衡量党派和政党竞争的认可程度，以及特殊利益集团、社会运动和大众媒体在提供公民代表的替代手段方面的作用。 这项研究依赖于一项全国性调查中提出的各种态度问题。 这项研究建立了另一个数据点，并为PI提供了一个机会来测试目前的说法，即政党的公共合法性随着时间的推移而漂移。

This research is an extension and expansion of a longitudinal study of the general public's attitudes toward political parties and the party system. The study explores three kinds of public orientations toward parties. The first incorporates several measures of partisan identification and political independence previously used by the PI. The second focuses on public reactions to the two-party system and the entry of third parties to challenging the present party duopoly. The final set of public orientations turns to measuring the degree of approval of partisanship and party competition, and the role of special interest groups, social movements and the mass media for providing alternative means of citizen representation. The study relies on a variety of attitudinal questions being asked in a nation-wide survey. The study establishes another data point and provides the PI the opportunity to test current claims that public legitimation of political parties has drifted over time.