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Political extremism — left, center, and right

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Abstract

This paper formalizes Lipset’s theory of political extremism and applies its axioms and derivations to guide empirical research. A latent structure analysis of measures of the issues from a survey of the 1992 U.S. electorate produced a three-class Left-Center-Right classification of voters. Given that ideological consistency may indicate a propensity toward political extremism, this study finds that this propensity now is strongest in the Right class and not in the Left and Center classes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Systemic Research, USA

    Robert B. Smith (director of evaluation and statistics)

Authors
  1. Robert B. Smith
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Additional information

He taught political sociology and search methodology at the University of Calfornia, Santa Barbara. His publications include theoretical and emjpirical analysis of political and social process and he has edited A Handbook of Social Science Methods.

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Smith, R.B. Political extremism — left, center, and right. Am Soc 34, 70–80 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-003-1006-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-003-1006-x

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