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The article presents a comment on the article "Estimable Functions of Age, Period, and Cohort Effects," by Willard L. Rodgers that appeared in the December 1982 issue of the journal "American Sociological Review." Rodgers reviews aspects of the age-period-cohort (APC) accounting framework found in authors' work. His main conclusion is that use of this framework can rarely if ever be justified. In this view he is not alone, and the only novel aspect of his article is the route by which he is led to reject the framework. Like Rodgers authors think that meaningful analysis within the APC framework is difficult and challenging. Unlike him, authors do not think it impossible. His view is not sustained by his reasoning. The keystone of Rodgers's argument seems to be his belief that social science theories are so vague, and social science data so error-ridden, as to prohibit meaningful application of linear restrictions, which identify parameters in the APC accounting framework. His characterization of social science theories also seems meant to apply to the thinking of social scientists. Perhaps for this reason he appears to assume that the analyst will be totally devoid of theoretical ideas and expectations, or of relevant substantive knowledge, including the approvingly mentioned "side" information, from which to derive identifying restrictions and interpret results. Sociologists believe that mindless analysts will make no headway if they use the APC specification. Indeed, they will make no headway as researchers.

This article focuses on the political alienation in the U.S. during the year 1952-1968. Twenty-five attitudinal items in the 1968 survey were selected in five broad domains relevant to political tryst: race relations, law and order, the Vietnam war, government social welfare policies, and personal and financial well-being. Philip Converse, a social scientist identified the first three as the key issues of the 1968 election and as among the common events which heightened alienation in the 1960s. The first two domains and the domestic impact of the Vietnam war are central components of the social issue, the emergence of which is in their view the major political event of the 1960s. Attitudes toward government social welfare policies and personal and financial well-being represent their other major, but more traditional, political issue domain-the economic issue. Relating issue-attitudes to trust requires special attention to the attitudinal responses which are elicited. In particular, the form of the relationship between issue-attitudes and trust depends on the range of alternatives offered in the attitudinal questions.