It is a necessary condition that people have an opinion about groups before they can use groups to help make sense of the political world. Beyond individual resources and motivation, the strength of social ties and amount of agreement within networks situated within more or less supportive social contexts affect whether individuals seek out and receive information about groups sufficient to form an opinion of them. The author tests this argument with a sample of Republican primary voters in order to address the implications for the place of interest groups in society and the study of social interaction.
Abramowitz, Alan, John McGlennon, and Ronald Rapoport .1981. A note on strategic voting in a primary election. Journal of Politics43 (3): 899-904.
2.
Atkeson, Lonna Rae and Ronald B. Rapoport.2003. The more things change the more they remain the same: Examining gender differences in political attitude expression, 1952-2000. Public Opinion Quarterly67:495-521.
3.
Bennett, Stephen E.1986. Apathy in America, 1960-84: Causes and consequences of citizen political indifference. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Transnational.
4.
Berelson, Bernard, Paul Lazarsfeld, and William McPhee .1954. Voting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
5.
Berinksy, Adam J.1999. The two voices of public opinion. American Journal of Political Science43 (4): 1209-30.
6.
Berinksy, Adam J.2002. Silent voices: Social welfare policy opinions and political equality in America. American Journal of Political Science46 (2): 276-87.
7.
Brady, Henry E. and Paul M. Sniderman.1985. Attitude attribution: A group basis for political reasoning. American Political Science Review79:1061-78.
8.
Burns, Nancy, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Sidney Verba.2001. The private roots of public action . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
9.
Calvert, Randall L.1985. The value of biased information: A rational choice model of political advice. Journal of Politics4:530-55.
10.
Conover, Pamela J.1984. The influence of group identifications on political perceptions and evaluation. Journal of Politics46 (3): 760-85.
11.
Dao, James.2005. Movement in the pews tries to jolt Ohio. The New York Times, March 27, A14.
12.
Delli Carpini, Michael X. and Scott Keeter.1996. What Americans know about politics and why it matters . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
13.
Djupe, Paul A. and Christopher P. Gilbert.2003. The prophetic pulpit: Clergy, churches, and communities in American politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
14.
Djupe, Paul A. and Christopher P. Gilbert.2009. The political influence of church . New York: Cambridge University Press.
15.
Djupe, Paul A. and Jacob R. Neiheisel.2008. Christian Right horticulture: Grassroots support in a Republican primary campaign. Politics and Religion1 (1): 55-84.
16.
Djupe, Paul A., Anand E. Sokhey, and Christopher P. Gilbert.2007. Present but not accounted for? Gender differences in the acquisition of civic resources. American Journal of Political Science51 (4): 906-20.
17.
Downs, Anthony.1957. An economic theory of democracy. New York: Harper and Row.
18.
Druckman, James N.2005. Does political information matter?Political Communication22:515-19.
19.
Druckman, James N. and Kjersten R. Nelson.2003. Framing and deliberation: How citizens’ conversations limit elite influence. American Journal of Political Science47:729-45.
20.
Geer, John G.1988. Assessing the representativeness of electorates in presidential primaries. American Journal of Political Science32:929-45.
21.
Gilens, Martin.2001. Political ignorance and collective policy preferences . American Political Science Review95 (2): 379-96.
22.
Gimpel, James G. and Robin M. Wolpert.1996. Opinion-holding and public attitudes toward controversial Supreme Court nominees. Political Research Quarterly49 (1): 163-76.
23.
Granovetter, Mark.1973. The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology78:1360-80.
24.
Green, John C.2006. Ohio: The Bible and the Buckeye State. In The values campaign? The Christian Right and the 2004 elections , ed. John C. Green, Mark J. Rozell , and Clyde Wilcox, 79-97. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
25.
Gujarati, Damodar.2003. Basic econometrics. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
26.
Gutmann, Amy and Dennis Thompson.1996. Democracy and disagreement. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
27.
Hallett, Joe.2005. Churches flexing political muscle; Ohio’s Christian conservatives try to build on ’04 election gains. The Columbus Dispatch, April 11, 01A.
28.
Hawkings, David and Brian Nutting, eds. 2003. CQ’s politics in America 2004: The 108th Congress (Politics in America). Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.
29.
Hershey, Marjorie R. and Paul A. Beck.2003. Party politics in America. 10th ed. White Plains, NY: Longman.
30.
Huckfeldt, Robert.2001. The social communication of political expertise . American Political Science Review45 (2): 425-38.
31.
Huckfeldt, Robert, Paul A.Beck, RussellJ. Dalton, and Jeffrey Levine.1995. Political environments, cohesive social groups, and the communication of public opinion. American Journal of Political Science39:1025-54.
32.
Huckfeldt, Robert, Paul E. Johnson, and John Sprague.2004. Political disagreement: The survival of diverse opinions within communication networks. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
33.
Huckfeldt, Robert and John Sprague.1992. Political parties and electoral mobilization: Political structure, social structure, and the party canvass. American Political Science Review86 (1): 70-86.
34.
Huckfeldt, Robert and John Sprague.1995. Citizens, politics, and social communications: Information and influence in an election campaign. New York: Cambridge University Press.
35.
Jacoby, William G.1995. The structure of ideological thinking in the American electorate. American Journal of Political Science39 (2): 314-35.
36.
Katz, Elihu and Paul Lazarsfeld.1955. Personal influence. New York : Free Press.
37.
Klofstad, Casey A.2007. Talk leads to recruitment: How discussions about politics and current events increase civic participation. Political Research Quarterly60 (2): 180-91.
38.
Klofstad, Casey, Scott D. McClurg, and Meredith Rolfe. Forthcoming. Family members, friends, and neighbors: Differences in personal and political networks. Public Opinion Quarterly .
39.
Kohut, Andrew, John C. Green, Scott Keeter, and Robert C. Toth.2000. The diminishing divide: Religion’s changing role in American politics. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
40.
Krosnick, Jon A. and Michael Milburn.1990. Psychological determinants of political opinionation . Social Cognition8 (1): 49-72.
41.
Leighley, Jan E.1990. Social interaction and contextual influences on political participation. American Politics Quarterly18:459-75.
42.
Leighley, Jan.1991. Participation as a stimulus of political conceptualization . Journal of Politics53 (1): 198-211.
43.
Leighley, Jan E.1996. Group membership and the mobilization of political participation . Journal of Politics58 (2): 447-63.
44.
Lin, Nan.1999. Social networks and status attainment. Annual Review of Sociology25:467-87.
45.
Lupia, Arthur.1994. Shortcuts versus encyclopedias: Information and voting behavior in California insurance reform initiatives. American Political Science Review88 (1): 63-76.
46.
McClurg, Scott D.2003. Social networks and political participation: The role of social interaction in explaining political participation. Political Research Quarterly56 (4): 449-64.
47.
McClurg, Scott D.2006a. The electoral relevance of political talk: Examining disagreement and expertise effects in social networks on political participation . American Journal of Political Science50 (3): 737-54.
48.
McClurg, Scott D.2006b. Political disagreement in context: The conditional effect of neighborhood context, disagreement, and political talk on electoral participation . Political Behavior28: 349-66.
49.
McPhee, William.1963. A theory of informal social influence. In Formal theories of mass behavior, ed. William McPhee, 123-54. New York: Free Press .
50.
McPherson, J. Miller and Lynn Smith-Lovin.1986. Sex segregation in voluntary associations. American Sociological Review51 (1): 61-79.
51.
Miller, Arthur, Patricia Gurin, Gerald Gurin, and Oksana Malanchuk .1981. Group consciousness and political participation. American Journal of Political Science25:494-511.
52.
Mondak, Jeffrey J.1990. Determinants of coattail voting. Political Behavior12:265-88.
53.
Mutz, Diana C.2002a. The consequences of cross-cutting networks for political participation. American Journal of Political Science46 (4): 838-55.
54.
Mutz, Diana C.2002b. Cross-cutting social networks: Testing democratic theory in practice. American Political Science Review96:111-26.
55.
Mutz, Diana C.2006. Hearing the other side: Deliberative versus participatory democracy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
56.
Nie, Norman H., Jane Junn, and Kenneth Stehlik-Barry.1996. Education and democratic citizenship in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
57.
Norrander, Barbara.1989. Ideological representativeness of presidential primary voters. American Journal of Political Science33:570-87.
58.
Putnam, Robert D.2000. Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community . New York: Simon & Schuster .
59.
Rahn, Wendy M.1993. The role of partisan stereotypes in information processing about political candidates. American Journal of Political Science37 (2): 472-96.
60.
Rakove, Milton.1975. Don’t make no waves . . . don’t back no losers . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
61.
Rapoport, Ronald B.1982. Sex differences in attitude expression: A generational explanation. Public Opinion Quarterly46:86-96.
62.
Rapoport, Ronald B.1985. Like mother, like daughter: Inter-generational transmission of DK response rates. Public Opinion Quarterly49 (2): 198-208.
63.
Rapoport, Ronald B., Walter J. Stone, and Alan I. Abramowitz .1991. Do endorsements matter? Group influence in the 1984 Democratic caucuses. American Political Science Review85 (1): 193-203.
64.
Rosenstone, Steven J., and John Mark Hansen .1993. Mobilization, participation, and democracy in America. New York: Macmillan.
65.
Schuman, Howard and Stanley Presser.1981. Questions and answers in attitude surveys. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
66.
Shapiro, Robert Y. and Harpreet Mahajan.1986. Gender differences in policy preferences: A summary of trends from the 1960s to the 1980s. Public Opinion Quarterly50 (1): 42-61.
67.
Sprague, John.1982. Is there a micro-theory consistent with contextual analysis? In Strategies of political inquiry, ed. Elinor Ostrom, 99-121. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
68.
Sunstein, Cass R.2002. The law of group polarization. Journal of Political Philosophy10:175-95.
69.
Tocqueville, Alexis de.1840/1994. Democracy in America. Vol. 2. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
70.
Turner, John C., Michael A. Hogg, P.J. Oakes, S.D. Reicher, and M.S. Wetherell.1987. Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
71.
Verba, Sidney, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady .1995. Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
72.
Zaller, John R.1992. The nature and origins of mass opinion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press .
