LIBERALS, POPULISTS, LIBERTARIANS, AND CONSERVATIVES - THE LINK BETWEEN DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL-AFFAIRS

This paper examines the relationship between the domestic and foreign policy beliefs of American opinion leaders, using data drawn from nati onwide surveys in 1984, 1988 and 1992. Responses to fourteen items app earing in each of the surveys are used to identify four domestic polic y types: liberals, populists, conservatives, and libertarians. An addi tional 14 items are used to classify respondents into four foreign pol icy types: hardliners, internationalists, isolationists and accommodat ionists. There is a high correlation between the domestic and foreign policy types. Further analyses examine the responses of the four domes tic policy types to several international issues: future threats, us i nterests and roles, foreign policy goals, and approaches to peace. Bac kground variables associated with the domestic and foreign policy beli efs indicate that the cross-cutting cleavages created by domestic and international issues during the two decades after World War II are giv ing way to overlapping divisions that have powerful partisan and ideol ogical foundations.