Only a tiny elite stratum of voters qualifies as true ideologues

Evidence

In the first or top level were placed those respondents who did indeed rely in some active way on a relatively abstract and far-reaching conceptual dimension as a yardstick against which political objects and their shifting policy significance over time were evaluated. We did not require that this dimension be the liberal-conservative continuum itself, but it was almost the only dimension of the sort that occurred empirically. In a second stratum were placed those respondents who mentioned such a dimension in a peripheral way but did not appear to place much evaluative dependence upon it or who used such concepts in a fashion that raised doubt about the breadth of their understanding of the meaning of the term. The first stratum was loosely labeled “ideologue” and the second “near-ideologue.” — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1888

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the top two levels of conceptualization: ideologue and near-ideologue.