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Abstract
The principal problem in issue voting concerns the direction of causality. The voter's thinking on an issue may be the “cause “of his voting for a particular party. Conversely, the voter's identification with a party may shape his thinking on an issue. Or it is possible that the relation between party identification and opinion on issues is spurious. The methods of analysis suggested by Blau and Goodman are combined to provide a number of tests of the principal hypotheses. An antecedent variable was located and 15 tests undertaken of the relations between variables. The inference is drawn that in the political process, opinions on an issue are best regarded as a product rather than as a cause. This is most likely to be the case when opinions are tested during the course of an election campaign.