Public Opinion and Public Policy: Heroin and Other Opioids

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 1163-1185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Kyle Cook ◽  
Henry H. Brownstein
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Prescription Opioid ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Political Affiliation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Complicated Situation ◽  
Prescription Opioid Abuse

Virginia, much like other states, has experienced unprecedented rates of heroin and prescription opioid abuse, overdoses, and deaths. Given the wide range of competing voices concerning drug policy and the complicated situation of the contemporary opioid epidemic, this study examines whether public opinion is reflected in public policy toward illicit involvement with opioids. The 2016 Commonwealth Public Policy Survey, a statewide representative sample of 1,000 Virginia residents, found that Virginians are supportive of treatment over arrest for heroin and prescription pill abusers and factors such as race, education, and political affiliation are predictive of support for treatment over arrest. More importantly, the results of this poll converge with legislative policies of the 2017 General Assembly, supporting the notion that public support can have an influence on the policymaking process. Policy implications are discussed.

Military Alliances and Public Support for War

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tomz ◽  
Jessica L P Weeks
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Military Alliances ◽  
Audience Costs ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Willingness To Intervene ◽  
Reputational Costs

Abstract How do military alliances affect public support for war to defend victims of aggression? We offer the first experimental evidence on this fundamental question. Our experiments revealed that alliance commitments greatly increased the American public's willingness to intervene abroad. Alliances shaped public opinion by increasing public fears about the reputational costs of nonintervention and by heightening the perceived moral obligation to intervene out of concerns for fairness and loyalty. Finally, although alliances swayed public opinion across a wide range of circumstances, they made the biggest difference when the costs of intervention were high, the stakes of intervention were low, and the country needing aid was not a democracy. Thus, alliances can create pressure for war even when honoring the commitment would be extremely inconvenient, which could help explain why democratic allies tend to be so reliable. These findings shed new light on the consequences of alliances and other international legal commitments, the role of morality in foreign policy, and ongoing debates about domestic audience costs.

scholarly journals Responsibilization and Sexual Stigma Under Austerity: Surveying Public Support for Government-Funded PrEP in England

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-653
Author(s):  
Timothy Hildebrandt ◽  
Leticia Bode ◽  
Jessica S. C. Ng
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sexual Stigma ◽  
The Government ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Media Narratives

Abstract Introduction Under austerity, governments shift responsibilities for social welfare to individuals. Such responsibilization can be intertwined with pre-existing social stigmas, with sexually stigmatized individuals blamed more for health problems due to “irresponsible” sexual behavior. To understand how sexual stigma affects attitudes on government healthcare expenditures, we examine public support for government-provisioned PrEP in England at a time when media narratives cast the drug as an expensive benefit for a small, irresponsible social group and the National Health Service’s long-term sustainability was in doubt. Methods This paper uses data from an original survey (N = 738) conducted in September 2016, when public opinion should be most sensitive to sexual stigma. A survey experiment tests how the way beneficiaries of PrEP were described affected support for NHS provision of it. Contrary to expectations, we found that support was high (mean = 3.86 on a scale of 1 to 5) irrespective of language used or beneficiary group mentioned. Differences between conditions were negligible. Discussion Sexual stigma does not diminish support for government-funded PrEP, which may be due to reverence for the NHS; resistance to responsibilization generally; or just to HIV, with the public influenced by sympathy and counter-messaging. Social policy implications Having misjudged public attitudes, it may be difficult for the government to continue to justify not funding PrEP; the political rationale for contracting out its provision is unnecessary and flawed. With public opinion resilient to responsibilization narratives and sexual stigma even under austerity, welfare retrenchment may be more difficult than social policymakers presume.

scholarly journals Older Adults’ Intention to Socially Isolate Once COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders Are Replaced With “Safer-at-Home” Public Health Advisories: A Survey of Respondents in Maryland

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (11) ◽  
pp. 1175-1183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Callow ◽  
Daniel D. Callow ◽  
Charles Smith
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Analysis Of Covariance ◽  
Political Affiliation ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
At Home

Background: The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Health Belief Model (HBM) were used to examine the opinion and behaviors of older adults regarding Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), social distancing practices, stay-at-home orders, and hypothetical public policy messaging strategies. Method: A convenience sample ( N = 242) of adults 60 and older in the state of Maryland took part in an online survey. Respondents filled out questions regarding demographic information, political affiliation, current social distancing behaviors, and TPB and HBM constructs in our proposed model. Linear regression analysis and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were conducted to test the model. Results: Attitude toward social isolation was affected by perceived benefits and barriers to social distancing measures, perceived severity of COVID-19, and political affiliation. Behavior intention was influenced by attitude, subjective norms, political affiliation, and messaging strategies. Conclusion: The study provides support for the conceptual model and has public policy implications as authorities begin to lift stay-at-home orders.

The Illusion of Progress, 1956

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence S. Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Free World ◽  
Incremental Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Essential Support

Eisenhower’s reservations in December 1955 did not keep his special assistant from unveiling a new package of proposals in January 1956. As always, Stassen’s work was fast and thorough. He characterized the results as a compromise, although Dulles and the Joint Chiefs groused that they failed to find any evidence of it. His plan contained elements of both the incremental approach to disarmament that he and the president had advocated in the past and other, more extravagant ideas encompassing a wide range of steps toward disarmament. He believed that the UN General Assembly substantially endorsed his views. Stassen also justified his haste, noting that a delay “would cause a serious loss of US initiative.” Not surprisingly, he encountered the continuing hostility of Dulles, who “believed that adoption by the U.S. of the position which you recommend would not be sufficient to maintain for us our leadership in the free world coalition and to secure the essential support of world public opinion.”

Strategic Position with the Public

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
George C. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Presidential Leadership ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
General Direction ◽  
The Public ◽  
Strong Position ◽  
Strategic Position

This chapter illustrates the advantages of focusing on the president’s existing opportunity structure by analyzing Barack Obama’s strategic position with the public to explain why he faced such difficulties in obtaining the public’s support. It argues that all presidents wishing to make important changes in public policy should seek to answer the following questions about their strategic position with public opinion: Did the public provide the president an electoral mandate for his policies? Does the public support the general direction of the president’s policies? How polarized is public opinion? How malleable is public opinion? By answering these questions, we are in a strong position to understand the potential of presidential leadership of the public and more importantly, to predict the likelihood of the president obtaining the public’s support for his programs.

Public opinion and public policy in Turkey

2018 ◽  
pp. 163-180
Author(s):  
Sedef Turper
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys

This chapter focuses on political attitudes and policy preferences of Turkish citizens in various salient policy domains. The chapter makes use of several public opinion surveys conducted in Turkey during the period between 1990 and 2015. Firstly, the chapter is concerned with levels of political interest among the Turkish public, and across different subpopulations. The chapter then goes on to consider the public policy issues which have been salient to the Turkish public over the last ten years and the policy preferences of Turkish citizens regarding these salient public policy issues. The current analysis of the policy preferences of the Turkish public points at probable causes of discontent with certain public policies in Turkey as well as the potential areas for policy change where substantial public support can be consolidated.

Squaring the public policy circle

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Taylor-Gooby
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Voluntary Sector ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Target Setting ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Democratic Debate

This chapter examines the strategies that have been developed to manage the dilemma between maintaining services and constraint. These include shifting responsibility in various areas towards the market and the individual or voluntary sector, target-setting, manifold attempts to manage and restrain public provision, and attempts to change people's behaviour to cut demand. It argues that none of these approaches is entirely acceptable to public opinion and none has been markedly successful in solving the problem. This suggests that the dilemma of spending versus cutting will continue to underlie policy-making, that future policies must combine a range of approaches, and that greater attention to fostering a more informed and genuinely democratic debate is necessary so that new policy directions will be able to gain public support.

Economic ‘Stagflation’ and Public Support for the Political System

1984 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Stephen Weatherford
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political System ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Index Level

Declining trust in politicians and political institutions is one of the most dramatic and well-documented trends in American public opinion. Confidence in religious, educational and other institutions has also waned, but emphasis has focused on diminished political trust, both because it may summarize a wide range of diffuse grievances and because it might indicate an increased potential for disruptive action, political violence and instability. In the decade from 1968 to 1978, the level of political trust (measured by the conventional five-item CPS/NES index) was halved, the proportion of the public expressing moderate or high levels of trust falling from 64 to 33 per cent. The greatest decline in the index level (a drop of 14 points) occurred between 1972 and 1974.

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