Studies in Public Opinion


Book Description

Building on and reaching beyond themes in the work of Philip Converse, one of the pioneers in the study of public opinion, Studies in Public Opinion brings together a group of leading American and European social scientists to explore a number of new factors, with a particular emphasis on the structure of political choices. In twelve chapters that reflect different perspectives on how people form political opinions and how these opinions are manipulated, this book offers an unparalleled view of the state-of-the-art research on these important questions as it has developed on two continents.




Public Opinion


Book Description

Is political polarization on the rise? Do various “populist” movements have anything in common? Is the opposition between left and right becoming obsolete and, if so, what might replace it? Many of the most pressing questions about contemporary politics involve public opinion. This incisive sociological introduction considers the formation of opinions as not just a matter of individual responses to external conditions, but as a social process in which people influence and are in turn influenced by others. David L. Weakliem illustrates how changes in economic and social conditions affect public opinion and how the distribution of opinions is shaped by the structure of interaction among people. He applies this approach to discuss topics such as political polarization, long-term trends in public opinion, and the prospects for democracy. Combining theory with up-to-date information on public opinion, the book will be of interest to researchers and students alike in sociology, political science, and communication studies.




American Government 3e


Book Description

Black & white print. American Government 3e aligns with the topics and objectives of many government courses. Faculty involved in the project have endeavored to make government workings, issues, debates, and impacts meaningful and memorable to students while maintaining the conceptual coverage and rigor inherent in the subject. With this objective in mind, the content of this textbook has been developed and arranged to provide a logical progression from the fundamental principles of institutional design at the founding, to avenues of political participation, to thorough coverage of the political structures that constitute American government. The book builds upon what students have already learned and emphasizes connections between topics as well as between theory and applications. The goal of each section is to enable students not just to recognize concepts, but to work with them in ways that will be useful in later courses, future careers, and as engaged citizens. In order to help students understand the ways that government, society, and individuals interconnect, the revision includes more examples and details regarding the lived experiences of diverse groups and communities within the United States. The authors and reviewers sought to strike a balance between confronting the negative and harmful elements of American government, history, and current events, while demonstrating progress in overcoming them. In doing so, the approach seeks to provide instructors with ample opportunities to open discussions, extend and update concepts, and drive deeper engagement.




Improving Public Opinion Surveys


Book Description

The American National Election Studies (ANES) is the premier social science survey program devoted to voting and elections. Conducted during the presidential election years and midterm Congressional elections, the survey is based on interviews with voters and delves into why they make certain choices. In this edited volume, John Aldrich and Kathleen McGraw bring together a group of leading social scientists that developed and tested new measures that might be added to the ANES, with the ultimate goal of extending scholarly understanding of the causes and consequences of electoral outcomes. The contributors--leading experts from several disciplines in the fields of polling, public opinion, survey methodology, and elections and voting behavior--illuminate some of the most important questions and results from the ANES 2006 pilot study. They look at such varied topics as self-monitoring in the expression of political attitudes, personal values and political orientations, alternate measures of political trust, perceptions of similarity and disagreement in partisan groups, measuring ambivalence about government, gender preferences in politics, and the political issues of abortion, crime, and taxes. Testing new ideas in the study of politics and the political psychology of voting choices and turnout, this collection is an invaluable resource for all students and scholars working to understand the American electorate.




The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion


Book Description

This 1992 book explains how people acquire political information from elites and the mass media and convert it into political preferences.




The Oxford Handbook of American Public Opinion and the Media


Book Description

With engaging new contributions from the major figures in the fields of the media and public opinion The Oxford Handbook of American Public Opinion and the Media is a key point of reference for anyone working in American politics today.




Mobilizing Public Opinion


Book Description

List of Tables and Figures Introduction 1. Elite Opinion Theory and Activated Mass Opinion 2. Black Insurgency and the Dynamics of Mass Opinion 3. The Sovereign Status of Survey Data 4. Constituency Mail as Public Opinion 5. The Racial, Regional, and Organizational Bases of Mass Activation 6. Contested Meanings and Movement Agency 7. Two Nations, Separate Grooves Appendix One: Question Wording, Scales, and Coding of Variables in Survey Analysis Appendix Two: Bibliographic Sources for Racial Attitude Items, 1937-1965 Appendix Three: Sampling and Coding of Constituency Mail Appendix Four: Typology of Interpretive Frames Notes References Acknowledgments Index.




Public Opinion in the Middle East


Book Description

Acknowledgments Introduction: Public Opinion Research in the Arab and Muslim Middle East Part One Domestic Politics 1. Regime Orientation and Participant Citizenship in Developing Countries: Hypotheses and a Test with Longitudinal Data from Tunisia (1981) Mark Tessler and Patricia Freeman 2. The Origins of Popular Support for Islamist Movements: A Political Economy Analysis (1997) Mark Tessler 3. Islam and Democracy in the Middle East: The Impact of Religious Orientations on Attitudes toward Democracy in Four Arab Countries (2002) Mark Tessler 4. Political Generations in Developing Countries: Evidence and Insights from Algeria (2004) Mark Tessler, Carrie Konold and Megan Reif 5. The Democracy Barometers: Attitudes in the Arab World (2008) Amaney Jamal and Mark Tessler Part Two Political Culture And Islam 6. Political Culture in Turkey: Connections among Attitudes toward Democracy, the Military, and Islam (2004) Mark Tessler and Ebru Altinoglu 7. Assessing the Influence of Religious Predispositions on Citizen Orientations Related to Governance and Democracy: Findings from Survey Research in Three Dissimilar Arab Societies (2006) Mark Tessler 8. Democracy and the Political Culture Orientations of Ordinary Citizens: A Typology for the Arab World and Perhaps Beyond (2009) Mark Tessler and Eleanor Gao Part Three International Conflict 9. Gender, Feminism, and Attitudes toward International Conflict: Exploring Relationships with Survey Data from the Middle East (1997) Mark Tessler and Ina Warriner 10. Islam and Attitudes toward International Conflict: Evidence from Survey Research in the Arab World (1998) Mark Tessler and Jodi Nachtwey 11. Further Tests of the Women and Peace Hypothesis: Evidence from Cross-National Survey Research in the Middle East (1999) Mark Tessler, Jodi Nachtwey and Audra Grant 12. The Political Economy of Attitudes toward Peace among Palestinians and Israelis (2002) Jodi Nachtwey and Mark Tessler 13. What Leads Some Ordinary Men and Women in Arab Countries to Approve of Terrorist Acts against the West: Evidence from Survey Research in Algeria and Jordan (2007) Mark Tessler and Michael D.H. Robbins Bibliography Index.




Impersonal Influence


Book Description

People's perceptions of the attitudes and experiences of mass collectives are an increasingly important force in contemporary political life. In Impersonal Influence, Mutz goes beyond simply providing examples of how impersonal influence matters in the political process to provide a micro-level understanding of why information about distant and impersonal others often influence people's political attitudes and behaviors. Impersonal Influence is worthy of attention both from the standpoint of its impact on contemporary politics, and because of its potential to expand the boundaries of our understanding of social influence processes, and media's relation to them. The book's conclusions do not exonerate media from the effects of inaccurate portrayals of collective experience or opinion, but they suggest that the ways in which people are influenced by these perceptions are in themselves, not so much deleterious to democracy as absolutely necessary to promoting accountability in a large scale society.




Public Opinion and the Political Economy of Education Policy around the World


Book Description

Comparative analyses of the influence of public opinion on education policy in developed countries. Although research has suggested a variety of changes to education policy that have the potential to improve educational outcomes, politicians are often reluctant to implement such evidence-based reforms. Public opinion and pressure by interest groups would seem to have a greater role in shaping education policy than insights drawn from empirical data. The construction of a comparative political economy of education that seeks to explain policy differences among nations is long overdue. This book offers the first comparative inventory and analysis of public opinion and education in developed countries, drawing on data primarily from Europe and the United States.