Public Opinion on Foreign Policy Issues

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Eichenberg
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Attitudes Toward War ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Scholars and governments are interested in four sets of questions concerning public opinion on foreign policy and national security policy. First, what do public opinion polls measure? How do citizens, who are generally uninformed about foreign policy and world affairs, form opinions on these matters? Second, how rational is public opinion? Is it stable or volatile? Are opinions coherent? Do opinions plausibly reflect the flow of world events? Third, what factors influence the formation of citizen opinions? Specifically, what is the impact of fundamental attitudes toward war and military force, partisanship, ideology, and gender? Finally, how universal are the determinants of citizen opinion, especially on crucial issues of war and peace? Are the findings in global comparisons the same as those in the American or European contexts? Considerable scholarship has been devoted to these four questions. Scholars now characterize public opinion as rational, in the sense that it is fairly stable, coherent, and responsive to real world events. Attitudes toward war and military force are a major focus of the research literature because many specific policy attitudes flow from fundamental views of war. Gender has also become a major focus of research because many studies find that women are less supportive of the use of military force for most purposes. Finally, scholars are beginning to discover that some opinion patterns are universal across societies, while others are more affected by the individual characteristics of national societies. Studies of global public opinion have expanded greatly, with recent scholarship focusing on global attitudes toward gender equality, immigration, and climate change.

Intervention and Intransitivity: Public Opinion, Social Choice, and the Use of Military Force Abroad

1995 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Taylor Gaubatz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Choice ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
The Impact

This article argues that the problems identified in the literature on public choice should critically affect our research on public opinion and our understanding of the impact of public opinion on foreign policy. While a robust literature has emerged around social choice issues in political science, there has been remarkably little appreciation for these problems in the literature on public opinion in general and on public opinion and foreign policy in particular. The potential importance of social choice problems for understanding the nature and role of public opinion in foreign policy making is demonstrated through an examination of American public attitudes about military intervention abroad. In particular, drawing on several common descriptions of the underlying dimensionality of public attitudes on major foreign policy issues, it is shown that there may be important intransitivities in the ordering of public preferences at the aggregate level on policy choices such as those considered by American decision makers in the period leading up to the Gulf War. Without new approaches to public-opinion polling that take these problems into consideration, it will be difficult to make credible claims about the role of public opinion in theforeignpolicy process.

scholarly journals Jakub Eberle: Discourse and Affect in Foreign Policy. Germany and the Iraq War

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-68
Author(s):  
Zuzana Buroňová
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Foreign And Security Policy ◽  
Lacanian Theory ◽  
The Individual

Foreign and security policy have long been removed from the political pressures that influence other areas of policymaking. This has led to a tendency to separate the analytical levels of the individual and the collective. Using Lacanian theory, which views the subject as ontologically incomplete and desiring a perfect identity which is realised in fantasies, or narrative scenarios, this book shows that the making of foreign policy is a much more complex process. Emotions and affect play an important role, even where ‘hard’ security issues, such as the use of military force, are concerned. Eberle constructs a new theoretical framework for analysing foreign policy by capturing the interweaving of both discursive and affective aspects in policymaking. He uses this framework to explain Germany’s often contradictory foreign policy towards the Iraq crisis of 2002/2003, and the emotional, even existential, public debate that accompanied it. This book adds to ongoing theoretical debates in International Political Sociology and Critical Security Studies and will be required reading for all scholars working in these areas.

Public Opinion and Decisions About Military Force in Democracies

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tomz ◽  
Jessica L.P. Weeks ◽  
Keren Yarhi-Milo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Religious Policy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Costs ◽  
The Us

AbstractMany theories of international relations assume that public opinion exerts a powerful effect on foreign policy in democracies. Previous research, based on observational data, has reached conflicting conclusions about this foundational assumption. We use experiments to examine two mechanisms—responsiveness and selection—through which opinion could shape decisions about the use of military force. We tested responsiveness by asking members of the Israeli parliament to consider a crisis in which we randomized information about public opinion. Parliamentarians were more willing to use military force when the public was in favor and believed that contravening public opinion would entail heavy political costs. We tested selection by asking citizens in Israel and the US to evaluate parties/candidates, which varied randomly on many dimensions. In both countries, security policy proved as electorally significant as economic and religious policy, and far more consequential than nonpolicy considerations such as gender, race, and experience. Overall, our experiments in two important democracies imply that citizens can affect policy by incentivizing incumbents and shaping who gets elected.

scholarly journals The ‘ultimate insurance’ or an ‘irrelevance’ for national security needs? Partisanship, foreign policy attitudes, and the gender gap in British public opinion towards nuclear weapons

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Ben Clements ◽  
Catarina P. Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Only two European countries – France and the UK, both NATO members – have nuclear weapons, and leading politicians have called for the UK and EU to maintain close military and security links post-Brexit. In the context of the Trident renewal debate and the UK government's recently published integrated defence and security review, this article uses data from the new UK Security Survey to analyse attitudes towards the possession of nuclear weapons among the British public. It assesses three key theorical strands in the wider scholarly literature on public opinion and states’ use of military force: domestic political attitudes, foreign policy predispositions, and the ‘gender gap’. We find that all three theoretical perspectives contribute to the underpinnings of contemporary public opinion towards nuclear weapons. Support for the retention of Britain's nuclear deterrent is associated with being a Conservative Party supporter, favouring Brexit, endorsing superior military power worldwide as an important foreign policy goal, wanting to protect the transatlantic relationship, and with being male. The article makes a distinctive contribution to the growing subfield of research on public opinion and foreign policy, while the findings advance wider empirical understanding of contemporary citizen engagement in a key dimension of security policy.

INFLUENCE OF US NEOCONSERVATISM ON FORMATION OF NATIONAL SECURITY PARADIGM

2020 ◽  
pp. 113-120
Author(s):  
Mukhammadolim Mukhammadsidiqov ◽  
Abrar Turaev
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Impact

This article analyzes the impact of neoconservative ideology on the formation of national security paradigms in the United States and reveals the impact of views and ideas put forward by U.S. neoconservatives on the formation of public administration, especially security goals in domestic and foreign policy. In particular, the role of Albert Walstetter, a well-known proponent of neoconservative views, in the formation of security concepts is discussed. The role of political philosopher Leo Strauss’s political-philosophical and military-strategic approaches in the development of neoconservative ideology and the conceptual basis of modern security problems are theoretically analyzed. It is emphasized that the assessment of the impact of neoconservative ideology on the formation of security policy in the development of political processes related to public administration in the United States depends on understanding the content of formed neoconservative security concepts. Based on the predominance of national interests based on national security approaches in the ideology of neoconservatism, the influence of neoconservatism on the interpretation of international relations as a highly conflicted, the anarchic environment is revealed in the formation of the neoconservative paradigm of security. In the following periods, the implementation of Albert Walstetter and Leo Strauss’s military-strategic ideas under the influence of neoconservatives in the US administration, in particular, the practice of proposing to continue the foreign policy course on the use of military force as a factor of national security.

scholarly journals The impact of civil status on womencs wages in Brazil

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Madalozzo ◽  
Carolina Flores Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Marital Status ◽  
Single Women ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Consensual Union ◽  
Women's Wages ◽  
Civil Status ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Consensual union, also known as cohabitation, has become more frequent in recent decades in Brazil and many other countries. In this context, some studies have analyzed the impact of marriage on women's wages. This article analyzes the effects of marital status on Brazilian women's wages by specifically investigating the individual characteristics of these effects using data from the 2000 Brazilian Census Database. This study concludes that wages differ by up to 15 per cent between married and single women and up to 3 per cent between married and cohabiting women.

Measurement survey using acoustic measurement network and sound environment evaluation system by experience sampling

2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (1) ◽  
pp. 5063-5070
Author(s):  
Kengo Togashi ◽  
Akiko Sugahara ◽  
Yasuhiro Nagasawa ◽  
Yasuhiro Hiraguri ◽  
Kazunori Harada ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation System ◽  
Experience Sampling ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Sound Environment ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
Trial Basis ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Intellectual Productivity ◽  
The Impact

The use of open-plan offices is increasing as they are effective in improving intellectual productivity by fostering a communication among workers. Previous research on the relationship between the indoor sound environment and intellectual productivity has mostly reported the impact of the sound environment on the tasks that individuals work on. However, there has been no research on the impact of sound environment on office spaces where multiple workers are actually working. In this study, we developed a system that can analyze the individual characteristics of workers in relation to the sound environment by simultaneously measuring their evaluation to the sound environment and the sound environment of the office. The system collected workers' evaluation of their impressions to the sound environment through a regular questionnaire using the experience sampling method. At the same time, it measured the sound environment of the office with multiple small measurement devices. The obtained sound environment evaluation data and the acoustic data of the office were stored in a single database. Finally, this system was run in a working environment to evaluate the sound environment on a trial basis.

Social Trust and Public Opinion about Territorial Disputes: Evidence from a Survey in India

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-633
Author(s):  
Florian Justwan ◽  
Sarah Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Character Trait ◽  
Territorial Disputes ◽  
Territorial Dispute ◽  
Arunachal Pradesh ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
South Tibet

Abstract This article explores the sources of public opinion about territorial disputes. Specifically, it investigates the impact of one particular character trait—social trust—on the policy preferences of Indian citizens in the context of the Sino-Indian dispute over Arunachal Pradesh/South Tibet. We argue that social trust shapes how a citizen thinks about a given territorial dispute and influences which policy options this individual favors in response to another country's claim. Our empirical analysis is based on original survey data collected in the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) in January/February 2017. In line with our theoretical expectations, we find that high-trust individuals are: (1) more likely to regard China's claim to Arunachal Pradesh/South Tibet as legitimate; (2) more willing to favor the onset of conflict management; and (3) more supportive of concessions. This article therefore adds to a growing literature examining the individual-level determinants of public opinion in territorial disputes.

scholarly journals Impact of heated waters on water quality and macroinvertebrate community in the Narew River (Poland)

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elzbieta Krolak ◽  
Krzysztof Lewandowski ◽  
Zbigniew Kasprzykowski
Keyword(s):  
Diversity Index ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Macroinvertebrate Community ◽  
Water Parameters ◽  
Power Stations ◽  
Wiener Diversity Index ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Dikerogammarus Haemobaphes ◽  
Sinanodonta Woodiana

AbstractThe effect of heated waters from coal-burning power stations on the water parameters and the occurrence of macroinvertebrates depends on the individual characteristics of the river to which the heated waters are discharged. The objective of the study was to assess the impact of heated water from the Ostrołęka Power Station on selected water properties and the macroinvertebrate community in the Narew River. Samples were collected in years: 2013-2016 along two river stretches: upstream and downstream of the canal. The water temperature was higher and the oxygen concentrations were lower at the downstream sites compared to the upstream sites of the canal. The values of conductivity, concentrations of nitrates, phosphates, chlorides and calcium were similar at the sampling sites. A total of 33 families of macrozoobenthos were found. The numbers of families were positively correlated with the temperature and conductivity and negatively correlated with oxygen. The heated waters were found to have no effect on the Shannon-Wiener diversity index. The inflow of heated waters increased the percentage of Gammaridae, represented by species Dikerogammarus haemobaphes (Eichwald, 1841) and decreased the percentage of Chironomidae. The presence of the thermophilous bivalve Sinanodonta woodiana (Lea, 1934) was noted downstream of the canal.

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