Movement Means Changing Politics

2021 ◽  
pp. 161-205
Author(s):  
Deva R. Woodly
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Opinion Change ◽  
Over Time

Chapter 5 reports on the political impacts of the movement thus far, including the way it has reshaped public discourse and political meanings, transformed public opinion, and influenced public policy. This chapter contains extensive empirical data, including records of public opinion change over time, maps of where progressive prosecutors have been elected across the United States, lists of policies aimed at “defunding the police” or what abolitionist call nonreformist reforms, which emphasize divesting from police and prisons and investing in social support, policies that are under consideration or have been adopted by state and municipal legislatures.

scholarly journals The Moving Centre: Preferences for Government Activity in Britain, 1950–2005

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bartle ◽  
Sebastian Dellepiane-Avellaneda ◽  
James Stimson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Election ◽  
The Political ◽  
Party Strategies ◽  
Over Time

The political ‘centre’ is often discussed in debates about public policy and analyses of party strategies and election outcomes. Yet, to date, there has been little effort to estimate the political centre outside the United States. This article outlines a method of estimating the political centre using public opinion data collected for the period between 1950 and 2005. It is demonstrated that it is possible to measure the centre in Britain, that it moves over time, that it shifts in response to government activity and, furthermore, that it has an observable association with general election outcomes.

RHETORIC OF THE STANDARDS: THE DEBATE OVER GOLD AND SILVER IN THE 1890s

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wyatt Wells
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Precious Metal ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
The Future

AbstractIn the 1890s, questions about whether to base the American currency upon gold or silver dominated public discourse and eventually forced a realignment of the political parties. The matter often confuses modern observers, who have trouble understanding how such a technically complex—even arcane—issue could arouse such passions. The fact that no major nation currently backs its currency with precious metal creates the suspicion that the issue was a “red herring” that distracted from matters of far greater importance. Yet the rhetoric surrounding the “Battle of the Standards” indicates that the more sophisticated advocates of both sides understood that, in the financial context of the 1890s, the contest between gold and silver not only had important economic implications but would substantially affect the future development of the United States.

Two Models of Public Opinion: Bacon's ‘New Logic’ and Diotima's ‘Tale of Love’ (The Prothero Lecture)

1974 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 79-96
Author(s):  
Samuel H. Beer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Work Done

It is appropriate that an American should address himself to the subject of public opinion. For, in terms of quantity, Americans have made the subject peculiarly their own. They have also invested it with characteristically American concerns. Most of the work done on the subject in the United States is oriented by a certain theoretical approach. This approach is democratic and rationalist. Both aspects create problems. In this paper I wish to play down the democratic problem, viz., how many of the voters are capable of thinking sensibly about public policy, and emphasize rather the difficulties that arise from modern rationalism. Here I take a different tack from most historians of the concept of public opinion, who, taking note of the origin of the term in the mid-eighteenth century, stress its connection with the rise of representative government and democratic theory.

EU-China economic ties will become more distant

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Medical Equipment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
European Public ◽  
Economic Ties ◽  
Over Time

Significance The pandemic has exposed Europe’s dependence on China for medical equipment, the vulnerability of European firms to Chinese takeovers and China’s lack of transparency in general. The resulting deterioration of European governments’ views of China increases the likelihood that EU-China economic relations will become somewhat more distant over time. Impacts The EU’s view of China is aligning more with that of the United States, but differences in aims and tactics impede cooperation. The election of Joe Biden as US president in November would strengthen Western cohesion and cooperation over China. European public opinion on China is likely to become more negative over time.

Evaluating Policy Representation with Dynamic MRP Estimates: Direct Democracy and Same-Sex Relationship Policies in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Lewis ◽  
Matthew L. Jacobsmeier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Dynamic Models ◽  
The United States ◽  
Multilevel Regression ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Policy Responsiveness ◽  
Policy Representation

Does direct democracy strengthen popular control of public policy in the United States? A major challenge in evaluating policy representation is the measurement of state-level public opinion and public policy. Although recent studies of policy responsiveness and congruence have provided improved measures of public opinion using multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP) techniques, these analyses are limited by their static nature and cross-sectional design. Issue attitudes, unlike more general political orientations, often vary considerably over time. Unless the dynamics of issue-specific public opinion are appropriately incorporated into the analyses, tests of policy responsiveness and congruence may be misleading. Thus, we assess the degree of policy representation in direct democracy states regarding same-sex relationship recognition policies using dynamic models of policy adoption and congruence that employ dynamic MRP estimates of attitudes toward same-sex marriage. We find that direct democracy institutions increase both policy responsiveness and congruence with issue-specific public opinion.

Announcements of the Tocqueville Society

1984 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-244
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Change ◽  
The United States

The Society announces that the 1985 Tocqueville Conference on Recent Social Change in France and the United States will be held in Paris, June 13–15, 1985, under the auspices of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques. The theme of the conference will be The Influence of Public Opinion on Public Policy.

The Polarizing Effect of the March for Science on Attitudes toward Scientists

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 782-788 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Motta
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Online Panel ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Political Actions ◽  
Answering Questions

ABSTRACTAmericans’ attitudes toward scientists have become more negative in recent years. Although researchers have considered several individual-level factors that might explain this change, little attention has been given to the political actions of scientists themselves. This article considers how March for Science rallies that took place across the United States in late April 2017 influenced Americans’ attitudes toward scientists and the research they produce. An online panel study surveying respondents three days before and two days after the March found that liberals’ and conservatives’ attitudes toward scientists polarized following the March. Liberals’ attitudes toward scientists became more positive whereas conservatives’ attitudes became more negative. However, the March appears to have had little effect on the public’s attitudes about scientific research. In addition to answering questions about the March’s political impact, this research calls attention to the possibility that the political actions of scientists can shape public opinion about them.

Public opinion and public policy in the United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saundra K. Schneider ◽  
William G. Jacoby
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aggregate Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Responsiveness ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Policy Field ◽  
The Relationship

In a properly-functioning democracy, public opinion should not only be correlated with, but also a major determinant of, public policy. Is that the case in the United States? In this chapter, we address that question by covering the major lines of empirical research on the relationship between American public opinion and public policy. We begin with early work that emphasized the limits of popular thinking about government, creating the apparent need for democratic elitism in governmental action. More recent literature includes perspectives from the public policy field, and research on democratic responsiveness at both the national and state levels. Major lines of work emphasize the existence of rational public opinion at the aggregate level which ‘smooths out’ the inconsistencies that may exist within individual policy attitudes. Seminal studies have considered both the degree of correspondence between opinion and policy (i.e., ‘the rational public’), and models that specify how policy responds to opinion (thermostatic responses and the macropolity). Recent methodological innovations have led to new insights about democratic responsiveness in the American states. Our general conclusion is cautiously optimistic: Policy generally does follow the contours of citizen preference, but elites also have opportunities to shape manifestations of public opinion.

Public Opinion and Morality Policy: Lessons from Canada and the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mildred A. Schwartz ◽  
Raymond Tatalovich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Morality Policy ◽  
The Public

Abstract To clarify why research examining the responsiveness of governments to public opinion produces mixed results, the authors focus on issues involving contested moral values that are known to be highly salient to the public and hence more likely to be linked to public policy. Canada and the United States, where the same issues have emerged, allow them to isolate the factors resulting in majoritarian congruence, where policies follow public opinion. The authors attribute finding even less congruence than previous research to the dominance of the courts in ruling on morality issues, although they also find a greater role for the legislature in Canada. The authors raise the possibility that the very salience of the issues inhibited political action from conflict-avoidant politicians.

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