Political Hopelessness: A New Dimension of Systemic Disaffection

Summary A six-item scale has been constructed to measure feelings of hopelessness about the future of the political system. The scale manifests internal consistency and concurrent validity, and is not significantly affected by the categoric-demographic attributes of the respondents surveyed (N = 264 male and female college students). Moreover, sociological, psychological, and political indicators are found to correlate with feelings of political hopelessness. Finally, a model of political hopelessness antecedents is supported, in which life dissatisfaction, low self-competence, and critical perceptions of the sociopolitical system's functioning are shown to foster feelings of political hopelessness. These findings are then considered within the context of individual- and system-blame perspectives on political behavior, in relationship to the broader concept of political alienation, and with regard to political violence justification.