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Gallup

society. Others think the government

other contemporary issues. (It should also be

should not favor any particular set of val-

stipulated here that no simple poll questions

consistently finds

ues. Which comes closer to your own view?

can adequately capture political ideology; intel-

about 20 percent

lectuals of any variety could object to almost all

of respondents to

Combining the responses to those two ques-

of the questions used in these polls. Like the

tions, Gallup found the ideological break-

pollsters, we've tried to use the questions that

be libertarian.

down of the public shown in Table 2. With

seemed to best capture broad differences

these two broad questions, Gallup consis-

among ideological groups.)

tently finds about 20 percent of respondents

For more than a dozen years now, the

to be libertarian.

Gallup Poll has been using two questions to

For our own analysis, we used a narrower

categorize respondents by ideology:

definition of libertarian voters. We added a

· Some

third Gallup question to the screen:

people think the government is

trying to do too many things that

· Do

should be left to individuals and busi-

you think the federal government

nesses. Others think that government

today Has too much power, Has about

should do more to solve our country's

the right amount of power, or Has too

problems. Which comes closer to your

little power?

own view?

· Some people think the government

Only those respondents who said "govern-

ment is trying to do too many things," "gov-

should promote traditional values in our

Table 2

Where Americans Stand on the Political Spectrum (percent)

Date

"Pure Liberal" "Populist" "Libertarian" "Pure Conservative" Undesignated

2006, Sept. 7­10

21

20

21

25

12

2005, Sept.12­15

24

19

21

27

9

2004, Nov. 19­21

16

19

23

30

12

2004, Sept. 13­15

20

20

17

29

14

2003, Sept. 8­10

19

22

19

31

9

2002, Sept. 5­8

18

23

19

29

11

2001, Oct. 5­6

18

30

17

23

12

2001, Sept. 7­10

16

18

22

30

14

2000, Sept. 11­13

16

18

18

30

18

1999, Sept. 10­14

15

23

23

31

8

1998, Oct. 29­30

14

23

19

29

15

1998, Apr. 17­19

13

17

21

34

15

1997, Jan. 31­Feb. 2

13

17

24

31

15

1996, Jan. 12­15

13

20

20

35

12

1994, Nov. 2­6

15

20

20

32

13

1994, Oct. 22­25

16

19

21

33

11

1994, Jan. 15­17

16

20

22

30

14

1993, Dec. 17­19

13

23

22

31

11

1993, Apr. 22­24

17

25

20

27

11

1993, Mar. 22­24

20

27

19

24

10

Source: Gallup Governance Surveys, 1993­2006, reported in Gallup Poll news release, September 7­10, 2006.

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