INTRODUCTION

People hold divergent opinions on public issues. For example, they may support or oppose practices and policies such as (a) Jallikattu, (b) women’s entry to the hill temple Sabarimala in Kerala, (c) triple talaq, (d) FDI in retail trade, (e) death sentence, and (f) confidence-building measures with Pakistan. One way people form opinions is by judging each issue separately and on a ‘stand-alone’ basis. Or they may look at them through their political or party or ideological prisms, and form opinions. Thus, those who regard themselves as ‘left, democratic, progressive and secular’ will oppose (a), (d) and (e), remain silent on (c), and support (b) and (f). Those who are right leaning will support (a), (d), (e), oppose (c) and (f) and could be ambivalent on (b).

For our purposes, we need not judge such opinions. But what is important is to recognise that such opinions rest on political attitudes. People do not judge issues just on their merits. People’s political attitudes and ideological orientations influence their way of thinking on issues. People examine issues with a particular slant derived from their ideological predispositions. This is why political attitudes are important; they predispose people to view matters from a definite angle. Students would have observed this while listening to debates in Parliament or on TV.

In this chapter, we discuss political attitudes and ideology. These are studied in economics, political science, sociology, psychology and philosophy. But strands of such studies intersect, and no single factor explanation is adequate. We outline political attitudes and ideologies relying on simple ideas from political science.