There are many ways that a person can come to believe in a cause, political
or otherwise. In no particular order:

1) because you're trying to impress a girl, so you are pretending to believe
in her cause, whether it be religion, saving the rainforest, whatever.

2) because the proponents of that cause have phrased it in a way that seems
to make sense, often using jargon, sloganeering, and other forms of
propaganda (ie. pro-life, pro-choice).

3) because it's part of your favourite political party's platform (ie. many
Liberals were opposed to free trade in 1988, but most support it now that
the Liberal government has embraced it).

4) because CNN told you it was good or that it was bad (Saddam is bad, the
UN and the French are somewhere in the middle).

5) because someone you don't trust took one side of a debate, and you
reflexively took the other side, and while making arguments you somehow
began to believe what you were saying.

6) "...for the Bible tells me so..."

7) because you are a right-winger or a left-winger. Opinions or tenets
described as "conservative" are naturally more attractive to someone who
believes they are a conservative than those described as "liberal". And
vice-versa (for the lefties). This is probably the worst way for people to
form personal opinions.

8) because it's something that you were taught in school (ie decisions made
by a western democratic government are somehow better than those made by a
non-democratic government. In reality, the distinction is not in how the
government came to be in power, but in other factors, especially how long
that government has ruled. From Saddam Hussein to Catherine the Great to
Jean Chrétien, almost every government in history has started out as an
activist or reformist one, and over time slowly became more and more
reactionary. Usually this results from a combination of having to defend
past decisions, or just becoming "comfortable" holding the reins).

8a) because it's something you were otherwise brought up with (ie spanking,
"I wasn't allowed to date until I was 18, and I don't see why you need to")

Still discussing methods of opinion formation:

9) people in a group can be subject to something called "groupthink". This
is ''a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved
in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override
their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action."
(Irving Janis) Here's a swell article on groupthink and the Challenger
accident.

10) because you have thought long and hard about the issue, and you have
come to your own conclusion about what's right and what's wrong (this is
actually fairly rare)

11) I almost forgot Delphi. This is where a group of people can be
"tricked" into thinking that they already believe something. Most political
parties practice Delphi on their more active members. So do other organizations, like
the Fraser Institute. The drawback with Delphi is that it really only works
on the most outspoken members of the group, but then, they are the ones that
probably matter the most to the practitioners of Delphi. Here's a MUST read on
Delphi, very interesting.



I'm sure there are others. Many times opinion is formed based on several of these factors, as a reader pointed out to me. Everybody is subject to these methods of opinion
formation, some of which are a result of people purposely trying to "help"
you form your opinion (examples 2 and 11). Some others are a result of
taking your cue from people whose opinion you respect (examples 8 and 4).

In the end it all boils down to forming a person's principles and the way
they view the world around them. The most simplified definition of
personal political beliefs I can think of is this.

Some people consider abortion to be a right. Others consider gun possession to
be a right.

Let's call it "Wilson's Law".

note: Groupthink is actually a method of decision-making, not opinion
formation. But it's very difficult to not have an opinion on something
after you've formed a decision on it, which is why I included it.