Liberals,Populists,Libertarians,and Conservatives: The Link between Domestic and International Affairs

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between the domestic and foreign policy beliefs of American opinion leaders, using data drawn from nationwide surveys in 1984, 1988 and 1992. Responses to fourteen items appearing in each of the surveys are used to identify four domestic policy types: liberals, populists, conservatives, and libertarians. An additional 14 items are used to classify respondents into four foreign policy types: hardliners, internationalists, isolationists and accommodationists. There is a high correlation between the domestic and foreign policy types. Further analyses examine the responses of the four domestic policy types to several international issues: future threats, US interests and roles, foreign policy goals, and approaches to peace. Background variables associated with the domestic and foreign policy beliefs indicate that the cross-cutting cleavages created by domestic and international issues during the two decades after World War II are giving way to overlapping divisions that have powerful partisan and ideological foundations.