Philip E. Converse,
"The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics," 1964

1. "A term like "ideology" has been thoroughly muddied
   by diverse uses. We shall depend instead upon the term
   "belief systems" ... We define a belief system as
   a configuration of ideas and attitudes in
   which the elements are bound together by some form of
   constraint or functional interdependence." (p.207)
   
   
2. Constraint Does Not Have to be Strictly
   Logical - "…few belief systems of any range at all
   depend for their constraint upon [strict] logic in this
   classical sense. … What is important
   is that the elites familiar with the total shapes of these
   belief systems have experienced them as logically
   constrained clusters of ideas, within which one part
   necessarily follows from another." (p.210-211)
   
   
3. From an observer's point of view,
   constraint means that certain issue positions
   are bundled together, and the knowledge of one or two
   issue positions makes the remaining positions very
   predictable.
   
   

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