POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTS, COHESIVE SOCIAL-GROUPS, AND THE COMMUNICATIONOF PUBLIC-OPINION

Theory: A theory of political communication is employed which stresses the importance of citizen discussion beyond the boundaries of cohesiv e groups for the dissemination of public opinion. Hypotheses: If the s ocial communication of political information is bounded by cohesive so cial groups and strong social ties, we should expect the social flow o f political information to be independent from opinion distributions i n the larger environment. In contrast, when social communication exten ds beyond socially cohesive groups, the flow of information should ref lect these opinion distributions. Methods: We analyze a 1992 election survey which includes a battery of questions regarding the constructio n of respondents' social networks. The analysis is undertaken with res pect to opinion distributions in the larger environments (counties) wh ere the respondents reside. Results: Individuals are differentially ex posed to larger environments of opinion depending on micro environment al patterns of social interaction and political communication. Hence, the construction of a citizen's social network serves as a filter on t he macro environmental flow of political information. In this way, the consequences of the larger environment of opinion depend on the exist ence of micro environments which expose citizens to surrounding opinio n distributions.