scholarly journals Whistleblowing or leaking? Public opinion toward Assange, Manning, and Snowden

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 205316802090458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Touchton ◽  
Casey A. Klofstad ◽  
Jonathan P. West ◽  
Joseph E. Uscinski
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Government Secrecy ◽  
Partisan Competition ◽  
Public Views

The release of classified documents through outlets like WikiLeaks has transformed American politics by shedding light on the innerworkings of governments, parties, and corporations. The high-profile criminal cases associated with such releases – those of Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden – have highlighted important questions about journalism, government secrecy, and the public’s “right to know.” Scholars have focused on the journalistic and legalistic implications but have yet to explore how the public views those who release classified materials, and what factors affect those views. Using data from the 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we provide results from three embedded experiments testing the effects of two forms of framing on favorability ratings toward Assange, Manning, and Snowden. The first frame addresses partisanship (i.e., which party is injured by the release) and the second addresses how the action is framed (i.e., did the person “leak” or “blow the whistle”). The data show that both the party and leaking/whistleblowing frames significantly affect favorability in expected ways. The release of classified materials comes with both costs and benefits, but public opinion appears to be more sensitive to its implications for partisan competition.

Redemption or forfeiture? Understanding diversity in Australians’ attitudes to parole

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Fitzgerald ◽  
Arie Freiberg ◽  
Lorana Bartels
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Latent Variable ◽  
National Study ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Variable Approach ◽  
Public Views ◽  
Latent Variable Approach

Recent Australian reforms to parole following high-profile violations are premised on a purported public desire for greater restrictions on the use of parole. These changes reflect the tendency of legislatures to presume that the public is largely punitive and invoke a ‘forfeiture’ of rights rationale that weakens support for offender rehabilitation. We consider whether restricting parole is based on a sound reading of public views. Drawing on a national study of public opinion on parole in Australia, we use a latent variable approach to look for distinct patterns in attitudes to parole and re-entry. We also examine what factors explain these patterns. The results support the conclusion that appealing to a public belief in offenders’ ability to change may be the most effective way to increase public confidence in parole systems.

The Morass of Morale

2021 ◽  
pp. 174-215
Author(s):  
Megan Faragher
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Elizabeth Bowen ◽  
Information Campaigns ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Information Work ◽  
Fear And Anxiety ◽  
Public Criticism

The Ministry of Information (MoI) had a robust morale-research apparatus which, more often than not, failed to successfully appeal to the public in high-profile information campaigns. Cecil Day-Lewis, who worked in the Publications division of the MoI during the war, allegorized such failures through his detective fiction; in both Malice in Wonderland and Minute for Murder, he alludes to Ministry campaigns like the “Silent Column Campaign,” which failed to appropriately respond to public criticism elicited from Home Intelligence morale reports. Day-Lewis’s subtle critiques of MoI morale assessment are also mirrored in the wartime work of Elizabeth Bowen, who used her information work in Ireland to encourage the MoI to take on more sympathetic public stances towards the neutral nation during the war. While Bowen attempted to read and translate the desires of the Irish public to English officials, The Heat of the Day likewise emphasizes characters’ struggles in interpreting and mastering the desires of others. In both The Heat of the Day and in her wartime short stories, Bowen returns to early psychographic symbols of ghosts and apparitions to elucidate the precarious position of the public opinion worker during wartime. In this chapter, both Bowen and Day-Lewis remind readers that the desire to manifest interiority as material produces fear and anxiety amongst citizens who feel themselves spied upon and who see psychographics as just another means of control for governments and institutions against its citizens.

How Priming Innocence Influences Public Opinion on Police Misconduct and False Convictions

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen M. Donovan ◽  
Charles F. Klahm
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Police Misconduct ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Police Use Of Force ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Nationally Representative

Issues of innocence have become more salient to the public in recent years, including the problem of police misconduct. However, citizens also tend to be supportive of the police, perceiving them as ethical, honest, and trustworthy. Using a survey experiment with a nationally representative sample, we explore the degree to which public opinion toward police misconduct is influenced by priming respondents on the issue of innocence. We find that reminding citizens of these issues increases their willingness to admit police misconduct that contributes to this problem by roughly 7 percentage points overall. Moreover, this effect is driven by conservatives and, to a lesser extent, moderates, presumably because liberals do not need priming. In contrast, the efficacy of the prime was not affected (i.e., moderated) by the race of the respondent. We place these results in the context of the current debate regarding police use of force as well as the ideological divide in rhetoric surrounding the recent string of high-profile police shootings.

scholarly journals We Have It Totally Under Control? Exploring the Effects of Ideology and Knowing Someone Diagnosed With COVID-19 on Evaluations of President Trump’s Leadership on the Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 1532673X2110413
Author(s):  
Jason S. Byers ◽  
Laine P. Shay
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mixed Response ◽  
Using Data

President Donald Trump has made various decisions, many controversial, to manage the coronavirus pandemic. The reaction to President Trump’s leadership has been met with a mixed response from the public. This raises an important question; what factors influence a citizen’s evaluation of President Trump’s response to the pandemic? We develop a theory that links a citizen knowing someone diagnosed with COVID-19 with their evaluation of President Trump’s management of the pandemic, with the expectation that this relationship is conditioned by a citizen’s ideology. Using data from two surveys, we find that knowing someone diagnosed with COVID-19 diminishes the effect ideology has on a citizen’s evaluation. Additionally, we find that a citizen’s evaluation of President Trump’s leadership on COVID-19 is associated with their vote choice in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. Overall, this article contributes to our understanding of public opinion on COVID-19 and its political ramifications.

THE ECONOMICS OF MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT CAN WE KNOW?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A.Rosen ◽  
Edeltraud Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation Policy ◽  
The Many

The long-term economics of mitigating climate change over the long run has played a high profile role in the most important analyses of climate change in the last decade, namely the Stern Report and the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment. However, the various kinds of uncertainties that affect these economic results raise serious questions about whether or not the net costs and benefits of mitigating climate change over periods as long as 50 to 100 years can be known to such a level of accuracy that they should be reported to policymakers and the public. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the derivation of these estimates of the long-term economic costs and benefits of mitigation. It particularly focuses on the role of technological change, especially for energy efficiency technologies, in making the net economic results of mitigating climate change unknowable over the long run. Because of these serious technical problems, policymakers should not base climate change mitigation policy on the estimated net economic impacts computed by integrated assessment models. Rather, mitigation policies must be forcefully implemented anyway given the actual physical climate change crisis, in spite of the many uncertainties involved in trying to predict the net economics of doing so.

scholarly journals The Legal Impact of Plea Bargain in Settlement of High Profile Financial Criminal Cases in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Paul Atagamen Aidonojie ◽  
Anne Oyenmwosa Odojor ◽  
Patience Omohoste Agbale
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Plea Bargain ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Legal Effect ◽  
Survey Questionnaires

Plea bargain has been globally accepted as a useful criminal prosecutorial tool in accelerating the prosecution of minor criminal cases. However, it has been observed that the introduction of a plea bargain into the Nigerian criminal justice system tends to aid the ruling class in looting from the public treasury and escaping justice. Given these legal anomalies, the study used online survey questionnaires sent to four hundred and five respondents (randomly selected) residing in Nigeria in ascertaining the Nigerian citizens view on the legal effect of using a plea bargain in resolving high profile financial crime cases. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used to analyse the respondents’ responses. The study, therefore, found that though plea bargain is a useful criminal prosecutorial tool in resolving minor criminal cases, it is unsuitable in resolving high profile criminal financial cases as it tends to involve a hide and seek game which makes a mockery of the Nigeria Legal System. It is, therefore, concluded and recommended that the concept of a plea bargain in Nigeria legal system should not be used in resolving high-profile criminal financial cases, as it tends to give leverage to those looting public funds.

scholarly journals Indonesia Government Public Communication in the Covid-19 Pandemic Handling

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-37
Author(s):  
Muhammad Sahlan
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

Since Covid-19 broke out in Indonesia, the public has monitored various government policies in dealing with these health disasters. However, policies run slowly; it gives rise to diverse public opinion. These multiple opinions become a form of communication between the government and society. However, the government does not fully capture people’s views, so people feel they do not receive government policies’ feedback. The purpose of this research is to find out how the Indonesian government’s public communication is in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. The research used a descriptive qualitative method using data during Covid-19. This study explains how the debate of government and community communication occurs in the form of public opinion. Various forms of public opinion from adverse to positive states become message instruments aimed at the government. This instrument then forms communication in the form of action as a sense of moral panic due to the absence of a back answer to the opinion expressed. So, these opinions are only as answers and realized by society in phenomena.

Judicial Legitimacy, Political Polarization, and How the Public Views the Supreme Court

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Zilis ◽  
Rachael Blandau
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Institutional Legitimacy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Diffuse Support ◽  
Public Views

As of late 2020, the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court consists of six generally conservative Republican appointees and three generally liberal Democratic appointees, one of the first times such a configuration has occurred in decades. In addition, contentious recent confirmation battles may have fundamentally altered public views about the Supreme Court. When it comes to public opinion about the Supreme Court, understanding the institution’s legitimacy and its relationship with political polarization is critical. Institutional legitimacy is a key currency for political bodies—and courts in particular—even as scholarly conceptions of legitimacy differ from popular commentary on the topic. To understand the nature of public opinion toward the Court in a polarized era, one must distinguish between specific support, a type of short-term satisfaction or approval, and diffuse support, commonly known as institutional legitimacy. Recent developments, including controversial confirmation battles and rulings, suggest that partisan and ideological cleavages may increasingly shape the Court’s legitimacy. Scholarship must continue to grapple with Supreme Court legitimacy in a time of political polarization.

scholarly journals Altering the Foundations of Support for the President Through Priming

1990 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 497-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon A. Krosnick ◽  
Donald R. Kinder
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Central America ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
National Election ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Overall Performance

The disclosure that high officials within the Reagan administration had covertly diverted to the Nicaraguan Contras funds obtained from the secret sale of weapons to Iran provides us with a splendid opportunity to examine how the foundations of popular support shift when dramatic events occur. According to our theory of priming, the more attention media pay to a particular domain—the more the public is primed with it—the more citizens will incorporate what they know about that domain into their overall judgment of the president. Data from the 1986 National Election Study confirm that intervention in Central America loomed larger in the public's assessment of President Reagan's performance after the Iran-Contra disclosure than before. Priming was most pronounced for aspects of public opinion most directly implicated by the news coverage, more apparent in political notices' judgments than political experts', and stronger in the evaluations of Reagan's overall performance than in assessments of his character.

scholarly journals Responsibility versus responsiveness…to whom? A theory of party behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Lefkofridi ◽  
Roula Nezi
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Issue Competition ◽  
Party Behavior ◽  
Empirical Illustration

Late Peter Mair argued that, in the contemporary multilevel institutional setting of global governance, parties are faced with a dilemma between Responsiveness and Responsibility (RR dilemma). However, Mair did not theorize variation in how different parties experience the RR dilemma (degrees of tension) and how they manage it (strategies). We develop his work in three ways: first, we advance variants of the RR dilemma, where the tension party leaders face differs, and elucidate how viable contenders for executive office are likely to behave in each of these scenarios, and why. Second, we highlight domestic institutional factors (electoral rules and leadership autonomy) that regulate the pressure for being responsive to public opinion and to partisans. Third, we place the RR dilemma in the context of multidimensional issue competition, which helps identify strategies for managing it. Finally, we provide an empirical illustration of our arguments using data on public opinion and partisans. We show that although responsibility can be combined with (some) voters’ representation, tension is high when leaders are constrained and partisans oppose responsibility even if the public endorses it; this is also the case under disproportional electoral rules when the public opposes responsibility, even if party supporters endorse it.

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