“Don’t knows” and public opinion towards economic reform: Evidence from Russia

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam J. Berinsky ◽  
Joshua A. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Special Care ◽  
Market Reform ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Survey Questions

As market reform has spread throughout the globe, both scholars and policy makers have become increasingly interested in measuring public opinion towards economic changes. However, recent research from American politics suggests that special care must be paid to how surveys treat non-respondents to these types of questions. We extend this line of inquiry to a well-known case of large-scale economic reform, Russia in the mid-1990s. Our major finding is that Russians who fail to answer survey questions tend to be consistently less “liberal” than their counterparts who are able to answer such questions. This finding has implications both for our understanding of Russian public opinion in the 1990s, as well as for measuring attitudes towards economic reform more generally.

Public Opinion in Russia and Pérestroïka

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-162
Author(s):  
Tatiana Zaslavskaia
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Political Upheaval ◽  
The People ◽  
Current Leadership ◽  
Difficult Transition

This is a decade of dramatic political upheaval. Sweeping social and economic changes are progressing at so rapid a pace that observers have had difficulty adequately comprehending them or assessing their implications. This is particularly true in Russia, where the current leadership has advanced a program of radical economic reform. If this effort is to succeed, it must be thorough, prompt, and, above all, socially sustainable. For only by rallying the support of the people will Russian leaders guide their country through the difficult transition to a more open economy.

Realignment and Beyond

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell J. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Societal Changes

Affluent democracies have experienced tremendous socio-economic changes since the mid- twentieth century, which has reshaped public opinion, party programs, and electoral choices. This chapter first summarizes the societal changes that have been a driving force behind the political changes described in this study. One pattern involves the longstanding economic issues of contemporary democracies, and shifting social positions on these issues. In addition, an evolving cultural cleavage and its ties to broader attitudes toward social change have altered citizen policy preferences. In most affluent democracies, the parties’ responses to these changing citizen demands have produced a realignment to represent both economic and cultural positions. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for the working of electoral systems and the democratic process more broadly.

scholarly journals The Role of Risk Preferences in Responses to Messaging About COVID-19 Vaccine Take-Up

2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062199962
Author(s):  
Jennifer S. Trueblood ◽  
Abigail B. Sussman ◽  
Daniel O’Leary
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Risk Preferences ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Disease Spread ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Flu Vaccine ◽  
Nationally Representative

Development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine is widely considered as one of the best paths to ending the current health crisis. While the ability to distribute a vaccine in the short-term remains uncertain, the availability of a vaccine alone will not be sufficient to stop disease spread. Instead, policy makers will need to overcome the additional hurdle of rapid widespread adoption. In a large-scale nationally representative survey ( N = 34,200), the current work identifies monetary risk preferences as a correlate of take-up of an anticipated COVID-19 vaccine. A complementary experiment ( N = 1,003) leverages this insight to create effective messaging encouraging vaccine take-up. Individual differences in risk preferences moderate responses to messaging that provides benchmarks for vaccine efficacy (by comparing it to the flu vaccine), while messaging that describes pro-social benefits of vaccination (specifically herd immunity) speeds vaccine take-up irrespective of risk preferences. Findings suggest that policy makers should consider risk preferences when targeting vaccine-related communications.

scholarly journals Introduction to the Special Issue: Soft Power of Civil Society in International Relations

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-476
Author(s):  
TAKASHI INOGUCHI
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Policy Makers

This special issue focuses on the role of civil society in international relations. It highlights the dynamics and impacts of public opinion on international relations (Zaller, 1992). Until recently, it was usual to consider public opinion in terms of its influence on policy makers and in terms of moulding public opinion in the broad frame of the policy makers in one's country. Given that public opinion in the United States was assessed and judged so frequently and diffused so globally, it was natural to frame questions guided by those concepts which pertained to the global and domestic context of the United States.

Assessing Triangulation Across Methodologies, Methods, and Stakeholder Groups: The Joys, Woes, and Politics of Interpreting Convergent and Divergent Data

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Campbell ◽  
Rachael Goodman-Williams ◽  
Hannah Feeney ◽  
Giannina Fehler-Cabral
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Specific Data ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Stakeholder Groups ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Evaluation Project ◽  
Collection Methods

The purpose of this study was to develop triangulation coding methods for a large-scale action research and evaluation project and to examine how practitioners and policy makers interpreted both convergent and divergent data. We created a color-coded system that evaluated the extent of triangulation across methodologies (qualitative and quantitative), data collection methods (observations, interviews, and archival records), and stakeholder groups (five distinct disciplines/organizations). Triangulation was assessed for both specific data points (e.g., a piece of historical/contextual information or qualitative theme) and substantive findings that emanated from further analysis of those data points (e.g., a statistical model or a mechanistic qualitative assertion that links themes). We present five case study examples that explore the complexities of interpreting triangulation data and determining whether data are deemed credible and actionable if not convergent.

scholarly journals Seawater desalination as an option to alleviate water scarcity in South Africa: the need for a strategic approach to planning and environmental decision-making

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. O. Schreiner ◽  
R. C. van Ballegooyen ◽  
W. Osman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Bulk Water ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Environmental Decision Making ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Seawater Reverse Osmosis ◽  
National Water

In the last decade, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) has come to be seen by policy-makers as a novel technology that will significantly advance water security in South African coastal regions. Water purveyors, from the private sector, local/district municipalities and provincial authorities, are undertaking studies to explore the feasibility of SWRO to meet growing demand and relieve mounting pressure on current bulk water supply infrastructure. With this in mind, it is suggested that national strategic planning should be introduced to present the opportunities and constraints of the desalination option within the national water and energy policy. In absence of this, piece-meal decisions will be made at local authority levels and the construction of SWRO plants will be determined by regional circumstances (e.g. drought) as opposed to national water policy agenda. This paper explores the value of such a strategy by considering the drivers of SWRO in South Africa, the risk of unplanned large-scale SWRO implementation (with a focus on environmental impacts) and the initial steps that could be taken toward a Strategic Environmental Assessment for SWRO in South Africa.

scholarly journals Modeling Confirmation Bias and Peer Pressure in Opinion Dynamics

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Longzhao Liu ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
Xuyang Chen ◽  
Shaoting Tang ◽  
Zhiming Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Confirmation Bias ◽  
Opinion Dynamics ◽  
Peer Pressure ◽  
Homogeneous Population ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Collective Decisions ◽  
Personal Opinion ◽  
The Impact

Confirmation bias and peer pressure are regarded as the main psychology origins of personal opinion adjustment. Each show substantial impacts on the formation of collective decisions. Nevertheless, few attempts have been made to study how the interplay between these two mechanisms affects public opinion evolution on large-scale social networks. In this paper, we propose an agent-based model of opinion dynamics which incorporates the conjugate effect of confirmation bias (characterized by the population identity scope and initiative adaptation speed) and peer pressure (described by a susceptibility threshold and passive adaptation speed). First, a counterintuitive non-monotonous phenomenon arises in the homogeneous population: the number of opinion clusters first increases and then decreases to one as the population identity scope becomes larger. We then consider heterogeneous populations where “impressionable” individuals with large susceptibility to peer pressure and “confident” individuals with small susceptibility coexist. We find that even a small fraction of impressionable individuals could help eliminate public polarization when population identity scope is relatively large. In particular, the impact of impressionable agents would be greater if these agents are hubs. More intriguingly, while impressionable individuals have randomly distributed initial opinions, most of them would finally evolve to moderates. We highlight the emergence of these “impressionable moderates” who are easily influenced, yet are important in public opinion competition, which may inspire efficient strategies in winning competitive campaigns.

Chronic Absenteeism in the Classroom Context: Effects on Achievement

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Gottfried
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Classroom Context ◽  
Urban District ◽  
Chronic Absenteeism ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
School Year ◽  
Reading And Math

Although educational policy makers uphold that chronic absenteeism (missing 10% or more of the school year) is damaging to students’ schooling outcomes, there is little empirical research to match. This study considers the role of spillover effects of chronic absenteeism on classmates’ achievement. It does so by utilizing a large-scale administrative urban district data set of elementary schoolchildren—a sample of students where the rates of chronic absenteeism are expected to be higher compared with the national average. The results show that students suffer academically from having chronically absent classmates—as exhibited across both reading and math testing outcomes. Chronic absenteeism not only had a damaging effect on those individuals missing excessive school days but also has the potential to reduce outcomes for others in the same educational setting.

Surveys and the Study of Latin American Politics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan E. Carlin
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys

To understand Latin American politics, one must view it through the eyes and minds of Latin Americans. Since the middle of the 20th century, pollsters in academia, government, and industry have fielded public opinion surveys in an attempt to do just that. Although they are not typically considered political institutions, polls and surveys influence a variety of political processes directly and indirectly thanks to the legitimacy they enjoy among academics, policymakers, and publics. Large strides have been made toward making surveys more methodologically rigorous and toward improving the quality of survey data in the region. Scholars have leveraged the data to advance the theoretical understanding of a range of topics, especially political support, partisanship, and voting behavior. Despite these gains, public opinion surveys face clear challenges that threaten their hard-won legitimacy. To the extent that these challenges are met in the coming decades, public opinion polling’s role in shaping Latin American politics will remain, if not strengthen.

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