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Association News Philip E. Converse: an Intellectual History of the APSA Association News Philip E. Converse: Beginnings An Intellectual History Phil Converse grew up in New England, of the APSA President but has been associated with the Mid- west since his undergraduate years at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. At Herbert F. Weisberg Denison, he majored in English literature, Ohio State University with much additional work in compara- tive literature. Also it was at Denison that Philip E. Converse, 1983-84 president of he met his wife Jean. After graduating the Association, is one of the. leading from Denison, he entered the creative survey researchers in the social sciences. writing program of the State University His work has given political science a of Iowa and obtained a master's degree much better understanding of the social- in English literature. That was followed psychological basis of public attitudes by army service in the Chicago area and toward politics. the many years since then in Michigan. APSA President Philip Converse chats at the annual meeting with Program Chairs Ada Finifter (1982) of Michigan State University and Doris Graber (1984) of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Women's Caucus President Marian L. Palley of the University of Delaware. 717 Association News Phil met the people in the program and realized it was one of the top social psychology programs in the country. At- tending a speech at the Michigan Union given by Warren Miller on the 1952 elec- tion survey, Phil was intrigued with this approach to politics, asking Miller after- wards if they had given any thought to reinterviewing the same respondents over time. Miller, pleased to find some- one with writing skills interested in the area, encouraged him to pursue graduate work in the field. After the army service ended, the Con- verses followed through with their plans for a year in Europe, with Phil studying at the University of Paris. Returning to Ann Arbor, Phil took a master's degree in sociology as a prelude to pursuing a doc- torate there in social psychology. The leaders in the social psychology program at the time were Ted Newcomb and Dan Katz, along with Helen Peak, Doc Cart- wright, Jack French, Al Zander, and, of course, Angus Campbell. The program was an ideal training ground from which Converse could move in any direction in the social sciences. At that time the social psychology pro- Program Chair Herbert Weisberg of Ohio State gram was a pipeline to the Institute for University presides over the awards ceremony Social Research (which still had little con- at the first plenary session of the 1983 annual nection with the political science depart- meeting. ment). As a result, when Converse inter- viewed in 1956 with Angus Campbell for Phil's interests began to shift from the a research job (Warren Miller was away world of literature and creative writing to at Berkeley that year), he soon found research and social science during those himself assistant study director on the years in Iowa and Chicago. His enjoy- 1956 election study. Phil was respon- ment of research and fascination with the sible, among other duties, for developing analysis of data first became evident at new questions on the influence of social the State University of Iowa while trans- groups on the vote. The results became lating a 13th century French book to the core of his dissertation. compare it with Chaucer's translation of After the 1956 election study was com- the same book. While in the army, he had pleted. Warren Miller insisted that it was time for reading history and soon realized important to prepare a book length report he was interested in social science. on the 1950s election surveys. Angus His association with Ann Arbor began vir- Campbell's initial misgivings were over- tually accidentally in the last few months come, and soon Campbell, Converse, of his army service when he was sta- Miller, and Don Stokes were meeting tioned in Battle Creek, Michigan. Jean weekly, going over their draft chapters. went to the University of Michigan in the Recall that this was the era before com- fall of 1952 to work on her teaching puters were used by social scientists, so credits. Soon she was helping with the the analysis was done primarily by campus Adlai Stevenson campaign counter sorter. Phil's dissertation analy- which was centered around the social sis of social group influence was re- psychology program there. As a result, flected in The American Voter, along 718 PS Fall 1983 with his work on the ideological level of But his major work of this genre is un- conceptualization of the electorate. doubtedly his classic chapter on "The Phil returned to France on a Fulbright Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Pub- Fellowship in 1959-60 at which point lics" (1964). To avoid the confusion of he began a collaboration with George the multiple meanings of the term "ideol- Depeux on French politics. His teaching ogy," the concepts of belief system, cen- in the sociology department at Michigan trality of an idea-element, and constraint began in 1960. The American Voter was of idea-elements are introduced. He published that year and truly revolution- shows the severe limits to the public's ized the study of elections. In 1963 Phil recognition and understanding of the was appointed associate professor of terms "conservatism" and "liberalism," political science at Michigan. and shows how this relates to the level of conceptualization of the electorate. The His writings since then reflect the variety constraint is shown to be higher among of interests which were already evident an elite sample of congressional can- in his early work. There is a focus on the didates than among the mass public and social psychology of political behavior is shown to be higher when the object is generally and, more specifically, the a social grouping of high centrality. The understanding of voting behavior, often stability of belief elements over time is set within the framework of his cross- explored. He finds greatest stability for cultural interests. At the same time, there partisanship and low over-time stability is the development and use of sophis- for issues with low centrality, and ex- ticated analysis methods, not for meth- plains this result in terms of a "black-and- odological effect but always to answer white" model in which some respon- important substantive questions. dents have perfectly stable attitudes while others change randomly but with- out any meaningful change over time. The overall direction of this work is to dis- The Social Psychology of count the ideological level of the elec- Political Behavior torate, but at the end Converse intro- duces the concept of issue publics to Converse's contributions to social psy- allow for the deep concern that particular chology began with his earliest writings. sets of citizens have about particular In the 1960s, for example, he col- issues. This tour de force concludes with laborated with Newcomb and Turner on a discussion of the relationship between the text Social Psychology: The Study of elites with distinctive ideologies and the Human Interactions. His research articles mass public, with case studies of the applied social psychology to political abolition movement and the formation of behavior, showing a concern with under- the Republican party and the mass base standing cognitive processes, such as of the Nazi party. This chapter has set the effects of information on political the terms for most of our subsequent decision-making and how multiple dimen- understanding and analysis of the ideo- sions underlie political attitudes. Thus, the relationship between media intake logical level of the public. and party defection was shown to be cur- Additionally, the social psychologist's vilinear, with highest defection rates for concern with discovering common psy- those with the most information and chological processes underlying ap- those few with no media input, in "Infor- parently discrepant human behavior is mation Flow and the Stability of Partisan evident in his comparative work. Con- Attitudes" (1962). "The Problem of Par- verse repeatedly demonstrates how com- ty Distances in Models of Voting mon processes can account for partisan Change" (1966) was not only the first patterns across countries even where study to apply a multidimensional model there are superficial differences. For to partisan competition (here in France example, in "The Politicization of the and Finland) but showed how different Electorate in France and the United sets of voters could place different States" (1962) Converse and George emphases on the different dimensions. Depeux show how apparent differences 719 Association News in levels of partisanship in two countries young adults, and considered the possi- were consistent with similar transmission bilities of realignment in the South. rates across generations. His later study His analysis is critical to our conventional "Of Time and Partisan Stability" (1969) understanding of the workings of ideol- shows how levels of partisanship across ogy, party identification, and issue fac- five nations are consistent with a single tors in affecting voting. The ideological model of partisan learning, resistance, level of the electorate is shown by Con- transmission, and forgetting. verse to be limited. Partisanship is in- stead the major long-term influence on The Voting Studies the vote decision. The normal vote repre- sents the long-term partisan baseline. Converse has also been central to the Partisanship is seen as stable, but with an Michigan election studies. His contribu- increase in strength associated with the tions to Elections and the Political Order life cycle. Issues have a limited role in (1966) included introducing "The Con- elections, because different voters focus cept of a Normal Vote" and applying it to on different issues.
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