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This paper investigates the political consequences of inconsistency for the accessibilityand self‐assessed stability of attitudes toward abortion. Two different sources of inconsistencyare examined: cognitive inconsistency between abortion attitudes and ideological identifications,and social inconsistency between individual abortion attitudes and the attitudes of others withinthese individuals' networks of association. The data analyzed are drawn from theresponses of 2,174 registered voters in a 1996 election survey that used computer‐assistedtelephone interviewing (which enabled measurement of response latencies). The analysis focusedon the relationships among the accessibility, self‐assessed stability, and extremity of abortionattitudes; the consequences of cognitive inconsistency for the accessibility and self‐assessedstability of abortion attitudes; and the consequences of socially inconsistent abortion attitudes forthe accessibility and stability of abortion attitudes.

As agents of electoral mobilization, political parties occupy an important role in the social flow of political communication. We address several questions regarding party mobilization efforts. Whom do the parties seek to mobilize? What are the individual and aggregate characteristics and criteria that shape party mobilization efforts? What are the intended and unintended consequences of partisan mobilization, both for individual voters and for the electorate more generally? In answering these questions we make several arguments. First, party efforts at electoral mobilization inevitably depend upon a process of social diffusion and informal persuasion, so that the party canvass serves as a catalyst aimed at stimulating a cascading mobilization process. Second, party mobilization is best seen as being environmentally contingent upon institutional arrangements, locally defined strategic constraints, and partisan divisions within particular electorates. Finally, the efforts of party organizations generate a layer of political structure within the electorate that sometimes competes with social structure and often exists independently from it.

An examination of the effects of individual political preference, & the distribution of such preferences, on the choice of political discussion partners. Data from a 1984 election survey of citizens in South Bend, Ind (N = approximately 1,500), & a subsequent survey of people with whom Rs discussed politics (3 per original R) are analyzed. Special attention is given to the consequences attendant on minority & majority preference distributions in the local social milieu. Ronald Reagan & Walter Mondale voters are shown to have responded similarly to political support from the social context; observed differences in political behavior for these two groups were shown to be the consequence of differential distributions, in local social contexts, of Reagan & Mondale supporters. Rational voters exhibit rational information search behavior, but political choice emerges in the analysis as a compromise between individual political preference & socially structured discussion opportunity. 2 Tables, 3 Figures, 21 References. HA