Ideology-driven public opinion formation in Europe: The case of third sector attitudes in Sweden

This paper uses third sector attitudes in Sweden as a test case for general assumptions about how citizens in ideologically structured West European political systems apply ideological schemas as shortcuts to political preferences. Third sector attitudes are found to be affected by all ideological schemas mirrored by the party system (state-market, Christian traditionalism, and growth-ecology). Moreover, contrary to what is implied by findings from America, these effects are very stable across socio-economic groups (especially those of the dominant state-market schema). Similarly, no interaction effects of political sophistication could be traced, and the relative impact of the schemas remains the same regardless of whether or not the third sector is presented as an alternative to the welfare state. Finally, consistent with theoretical expectations, the extent to which schemas have been made salient prior to the judgement affects their relative impact. The implications of these findings for the nature of public opinion formation in ideologically clear and structured political systems are discussed.