The Meaning of Political Support
One of the basic difficulties in studying political support is that the term has many possible meanings. The theoretical
distinctions between different levels of political support are well known, but these are often blurred (or ignored) in the
debate over public trust and confidence in democracy. Sometimes evidence of public discontent is no more than
dissatisfaction withthe incumbents of office—a normal and healthy aspect of the democratic process. In other
instances, the theoretical significance of public opinion findings are uncertain because the wording of the survey
questions is ambiguous. As discussed in the Introduction we believe it is essential to distinguish between at least five
objects of political support, and in reality this is a continuous dimension from evaluations of the immediate actions of
government officials to identifying withthe nation state.