scholarly journals Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (50) ◽  
pp. e2102139118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Axelrod ◽  
Joshua J. Daymude ◽  
Stephanie Forrest
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
External Shocks ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Ideological Polarization ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
Democrats And Republicans

Extreme polarization can undermine democracy by making compromise impossible and transforming politics into a zero-sum game. “Ideological polarization”—the extent to which political views are widely dispersed—is already strong among elites, but less so among the general public [N. McCarty, Polarization: What Everyone Needs to Know, 2019, pp. 50–68]. Strong mutual distrust and hostility between Democrats and Republicans in the United States, combined with the elites’ already strong ideological polarization, could lead to increasing ideological polarization among the public. The paper addresses two questions: 1) Is there a level of ideological polarization above which polarization feeds upon itself to become a runaway process? 2) If so, what policy interventions could prevent such dangerous positive feedback loops? To explore these questions, we present an agent-based model of ideological polarization that differentiates between the tendency for two actors to interact (“exposure”) and how they respond when interactions occur, positing that interaction between similar actors reduces their difference, while interaction between dissimilar actors increases their difference. Our analysis explores the effects on polarization of different levels of tolerance to other views, responsiveness to other views, exposure to dissimilar actors, multiple ideological dimensions, economic self-interest, and external shocks. The results suggest strategies for preventing, or at least slowing, the development of extreme polarization.

Citizens’, Scientists’, and Policy Advisors’ Beliefs about Global Warming

2015 ◽  
Vol 658 (1) ◽  
pp. 271-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Bolsen ◽  
James N. Druckman ◽  
Fay Lomax Cook
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Ideological Polarization ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Analyze Data

Numerous factors shape citizens’ beliefs about global warming, but there is very little research that compares the views of the public with key actors in the policymaking process. We analyze data from simultaneous and parallel surveys of (1) the U.S. public, (2) scientists who actively publish research on energy technologies in the United States, and (3) congressional policy advisors and find that beliefs about global warming vary markedly among them. Scientists and policy advisors are more likely than the public to express a belief in the existence and anthropogenic nature of global warming. We also find ideological polarization about global warming in all three groups, although scientists are less polarized than the public and policy advisors over whether global warming is actually occurring. Alarmingly, there is evidence that the ideological divide about global warming gets significantly larger according to respondents’ knowledge about politics, energy, and science.

Food Lobbies, the Food Pyramid, and U.S. Nutrition Policy

1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Nestle
Keyword(s):  
Food Choices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Dietary Advice ◽  
Nutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Dietary Recommendations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Food Pyramid ◽  
Nutritional Health ◽  
Self Interest

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1991 withdrawal of its Eating Right Pyramid food guide in response to pressure from meat and dairy producers was only the latest in a long series of industry attempts to influence federal dietary recommendations. Such attempts began when diet-related health problems in the United States shifted in prevalence from nutrient deficiencies to chronic diseases, and dietary advice shifted from “eat more” to “eat less.” The Pyramid controversy focuses attention on the conflict between federal protection of the rights of food lobbyists to act in their own self-interest, and federal responsibility to promote the nutritional health of the public. Since 1977, for example, under pressure from meat producers, federal dietary advice has evolved from “decrease consumption of meat” to “have two or three (daily) servings.” Thus, this recent incident also highlights the inherent conflict of interest in the Department of Agriculture's dual mandates to promote U.S. agricultural products and to advise the public about healthy food choices.

The Judge and His Hangman: Judicial Selection and the Accountability of Judges in the US

ICL Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-256
Author(s):  
Bertrand Lemennicier ◽  
Nikolai Wenzel
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Solution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Judicial Selection ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Us ◽  
Easy Answer ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Who gets to determine rights and justice? Which mechanism of judicial selection and accountability is optimal? There is no easy answer. If judges are independent experts, nominated and evaluated by their peers, they will be immune from the pressures of electoral rent-seeking, but unaccountable to the people. If judges are elected, they will be democratically accountable, but subject to the redistributive pressures of the ballot box. If judges are nominated and controlled by politicians, they will face the temptations of bureaucratic self-interest and will not be democratically accountable, but they will be shielded from the Public Choice problems of elections. This paper uses the death penalty in the United States to measure and compare the impact of different methods of judicial selection. In the end, there is no optimal solution – at least not within a state judicial monopoly.

Community Experiments in Public Health Law and Policy

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (S1) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela K. McGowan ◽  
Gretchen G. Musicant ◽  
Sharonda R. Williams ◽  
Virginia R. Niehaus
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Level ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Health States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Police Powers ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Improve Health

Community-level legal and policy innovations or “experiments” can be important levers to improve health. States and localities are empowered through the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution to use their police powers to protect the health and welfare of the public. Many legal and policy tools are available, including: the power to tax and spend; regulation; mandated education or disclosure of information, modifying the environment — whether built or natural (e.g., zoning, clean water laws); and indirect regulation (e.g., court rulings, or deregulation). These legal and policy interventions can be targeted to specific needs at the community level and are often relatively low-cost, but high impact interventions. As every community is different, effective laws and policies will vary. This freedom allows states and localities to, as Justice Louis Brandeis argued, truly serve as “laboratories of democracy.”

Who's Out of Touch? Media Misperception of Public Opinion on US Foreign Policy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Gift ◽  
Jonathan Monten
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Media ◽  
International Engagement

Abstract Although experts in the United States are often criticized as being “out of touch” for failing to understand the political views of average Americans, arguably no group has been more susceptible to this charge than the media. In this article, we exploit unique paired surveys to measure how accurately US foreign policy media experts assess public opinion compared to other foreign policy experts on the critical issue of American engagement in the world. We find that while experts, on average, substantially underestimate how favorable US citizens are toward international engagement, the media is more inaccurate than other types of experts. We suggest potential reasons for these findings that may serve as the basis for future research. Overall, our study contributes to a growing literature on elite misperceptions of the public and underscores the particular inaccuracies of the media in understanding the attitudes of Americans.

scholarly journals Social Closure and Veterinary Professionalization in Britain: A Self-Interested or Public Interested Endeavour?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Whiting ◽  
Stephen A May ◽  
Mike Saks
Keyword(s):  
Veterinary Medicine ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Dynamic Equilibrium ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Closure ◽  
State Action ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Professional Self ◽  
Zero Sum

The professionalization of veterinary medicine in Britain has been little studied by social scientists, although as a classic instance of an occupation that has achieved exclusionary social closure it merits examination from a neo-Weberian perspective. Therefore, this paper explores how it has attained this position through state action in an historical and contemporary context using neo-Weberianism as a theoretical lens. In charting the different stages and forms of professional regulation in veterinary medicine, group self-interest is identified as a central driver, following the neo-Weberian idiom. However, contrary to the position adopted by some neo-Weberians, the professionalization process is seen as being more complex than simply being interest-based, with the public interest being upheld. As such, through the case of veterinary medicine, it is claimed professional self-interests and the public interest can be co-terminous and mutually achieve a dynamic equilibrium.  They do not have to form part of a zero-sum game. 

scholarly journals Tools of Empire? Vietnamese Catholics in South Vietnam

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Van Nguyen-Marshall
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Humanitarian Organizations ◽  
South Vietnam ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Roman Catholics

This article examines the social and political activities of Vietnamese Roman Catholics in South Vietnam in the period from the 1950s to the 1970s. The Catholics’ participation in the public sphere, ranging from joining humanitarian organizations to organizing street protests, suggests that they were highly organized and proactive in trying to change their social and political environment. While Catholics held some political views and goals in common with the South Vietnamese and the United States governments, they pursued their own objectives, engaged in local and national politics, critiqued government policy, and maintained an important degree of independence from state power and influence.

Strategic Position with Congress

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
George C. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Presidential Leadership ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ideological Polarization ◽  
Strategic Position ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
Key Questions

This chapter examines Barack Obama’s strategic position with Congress, again explaining why he was not more successful. Presidential persuasion is at the margins of congressional decision making. There are several components of the opportunity for obtaining support from both Democrats and Republicans, aside from existing public support for the president’s initiatives. The chapter first provides an overview of partisanship in Congress and the ideology of Congress before addressing a number of key questions; for example, whether there is a perception in Congress that the president received an electoral mandate on behalf of specific policies, whether the president’s party enjoys a majority in a chamber, the degree of ideological polarization in Congress, or whether the structure of the decision facing Congress favors the president. The chapter shows that presidential leadership is highly dependent on the opportunity structure not only with the public but also with Congress.

An Asymmetrical “President-in-Power” Effect

2018 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 614-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVIDE MORISI ◽  
JOHN T. JOST ◽  
VISHAL SINGH
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Extensive Analysis ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Power Effect ◽  
The Government ◽  
Democrats And Republicans

When political polarization is high, it may be assumed that citizens will trust the government more when the chief executive shares their own political views. However, evidence is accumulating that important asymmetries may exist between liberals and conservatives (or Democrats and Republicans). We hypothesized that an asymmetry may exist when it comes to individuals’ willingness to trust the government when it is led by the “other side.” In an extensive analysis of several major datasets (including ANES and GSS) over a period of five decades, we find that in the United States, conservatives trust the government more than liberals when the president in office shares their own ideology. Furthermore, liberals are more willing to grant legitimacy to democratic governments led by conservatives than vice versa. A similar asymmetry applies to Republicans compared with Democrats. We discuss implications of this asymmetrical “president-in-power” effect for democratic functioning.

Verán ustedes las chozas más humildes. El discurso de pobreza en la diplomacia pública cardenista dirigida a Estados Unidos

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-281
Author(s):  
Sylvia Dümmer Scheel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
Lazaro Cardenas ◽  
The New Deal

El artículo analiza la diplomacia pública del gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas centrándose en su opción por publicitar la pobreza nacional en el extranjero, especialmente en Estados Unidos. Se plantea que se trató de una estrategia inédita, que accedió a poner en riesgo el “prestigio nacional” con el fin de justificar ante la opinión pública estadounidense la necesidad de implementar las reformas contenidas en el Plan Sexenal. Aprovechando la inusual empatía hacia los pobres en tiempos del New Deal, se construyó una imagen específica de pobreza que fuera higiénica y redimible. Ésta, sin embargo, no generó consenso entre los mexicanos. This article analyzes the public diplomacy of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas, focusing on the administration’s decision to publicize the nation’s poverty internationally, especially in the United States. This study suggests that this was an unprecedented strategy, putting “national prestige” at risk in order to explain the importance of implementing the reforms contained in the Six Year Plan, in the face of public opinion in the United States. Taking advantage of the increased empathy felt towards the poor during the New Deal, a specific image of hygienic and redeemable poverty was constructed. However, this strategy did not generate agreement among Mexicans.

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