ALIENATIONthat Blacks who participated in the 1967 riot in
Newark, New Jersey, had low levels of political
trust but high levels of political efficacy (i.e., high
capabilities and skills to affect politics, measured
indirectly in this instance by the respondents’ level
of political knowledge). However, Sigelman and
Feldman’s (1983) attempt to replicate Paige’s find-
ings in a seven-nation study discovered that the
participants and supporters of unconventional po-
litical activity were only slightly more likely to feel
both efficacious and distrusting. Rather than be-
ing generally distrusting, participants and sup-
porters in some nations were more likely to be
dissatisfied about specific policies. (See also Citrin
1974, p. 982 and Craig and Maggiotto 1981 for the
importance of specific dissatisfactions).
Even though politically alienated individuals
may sometimes be found in social movements, the
alienation of individuals is not necessarily the
cause of social movements. McCarthy and Zald
(1977) have argued that alienation and indeed
policy dissatisfactions and other grievances are
quite common in societies. Whether or not a social
movement arises depends on the availability of
resources and the opportunities for success. The
civil rights movement, according to McAdam
(1982), succeeded not when blacks believed that
the political system was unresponsive, but rather
when blacks felt that some national leaders showed
signs of favoring their cause.
DISTRIBUTION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF
POLITICAL ALIENATIONSocial scientists have argued that political aliena-
tion is concentrated in different types of groups—
among those who dislike politicians of the oppos-
ing political party, in certain economic and racial
groups, and among those dissatisfied with govern-
ment policy. Each of these findings supports a
different assessment of the causes and the impor-
tance of political alienation.
Partisan Bickering? First of all, high levels of
political distrust can be found among those who
have a negative view of the performance of the
presidential administration then in office. Citrin
(1974) concludes that widespread expressions of
political distrust (cynicism) merely indicate Demo-
cratic versus Republican Party rivalries as usual.
Cynicism, rather than being an expression of deep
discontent, is nothing more than rhetoric and
ritual and is not a threat to the system. Even
partisans who intensely distrust a president from
an opposing party are proud of the governmental
system in the United States and want to keep it.
However, King (1997) argues that distrust stems
from a more serious problem, that congressional
leaders and activists in political parties have be-
come more ideological and polarized (see Lo and
Schwartz 1998 on conservative leaders). The pub-
lic has remained in the center but is becoming
alienated from politicians whose ideologies are
seen as far removed from popular concerns.The alienation of social classes and minori-
ties. Second, other researchers interested in find-
ing concentrations of the politically alienated have
searched not among people with varying partisan
identifications, but rather in demographic groups
defined by such variables as age, gender, educa-
tion, and socioeconomic class. Many public opin-
ion surveys using national samples have found
alienation only weakly concentrated among such
groups (Orren 1997). In the 1960s, the sense of
inefficacy increased uniformly throughout the en-
tire U.S. population, rather than increasing in
specific demographic groups such as blacks or
youth (House and Mason 1975). Using a 1970
survey, Wright (1976) noted that feelings of ineffi-
cacy and distrust were somewhat concentrated
among the elderly, the poorly educated, and the
working class. Still, Wright’s conclusion was that
the alienated were a diverse group that consisted
of both rich and poor, black and white, and old
and young, making it very unlikely that the alienat-
ed could ever become a unified political force.Research on the gender gap, that is, the differ-
ing political attitudes between women and men
(Mueller 1988), indicates that women are not more
politically alienated than men (Poole and Muller
1998). In fact, a higher percentage of women
compared to men support more government spend-
ing on social programs and a more powerful gov-
ernment with expanded responsibilities (Clark and
Clark 1996) and thus are less distrustful of the
broad scope of government. Some studies have
shown that the politically alienated are indeed
concentrated among persons with less education
and lower income and occupational status (Wright