scholarly journals The Probing of God-Bearer

Author(s):  
Artemy Magun

The article is simultaneously an extended review of the book by Grigory Yudin entitled Public Opinion; or, The Power of Numbers (EUSPb Press, 2020) and an essay on the phenomenon of public opinion in the light of the repressive tendencies of contemporary society from the standpoint of critical theory. Relying mostly on Adorno, the author shows that public opinion polls are not only the result of the alienating reification, but also an effect of the basic subjectivism which turns the relationship between the subject and society into a detached, contemplative, and judgmental attitude. The objectivization coincides with subjectivization. Thus, in accordance with Yudin’s book, social science, if it wants to be more than an instrument of bureaucratic domination, has to rely on dialectical logic

Author(s):  
Alexey Titkov

The article continues the discussion of Grigory Yudin’s book Public Opinion. The review considers Yudin’s arguments on the “plebiscitarian bias” in opinion-poll technology, on the linkages between opinion-polls, Rousseauist tradition and the “plebiscitarian model”, and on Gallup’s, Schumpeter’s, and Weber’s contributions to plebiscitarism. In the context of the proposed conceptual model, controversial issues in the interpretation of Weber’s and Schumpeter’s ideas, as well as an estimation of the Russian political regime in the 2010s are debated. Models of plebescitarism (including their principles and criteria) as proposed by Yudin, and by Urbinati in Democracy Disfigured are compared. The article highlights the differences between Gallup and Schumpeter, as well as between Schumpeter and Weber, in their insights into democracy and public opinion. The reviewer pays attention to the relationship between the classical doctrine of representative democracy by Schumpeter and the bourgeois public sphere by Habermas, and between public debates and the quantification of public opinion. We examine the argument about the continuity between public-opinion polls and the big projects of Modernity, such as representative democracy, public sphere, and biopolitics. Continuity argument is proposed as an alternative to Yudin’s hypothesis about the radical reinvention of ‘democracy’ and ‘public opinion’ during the inter-war period of the 20th century. Yudin’s insights on the social and political onthology of opinion-polls are preliminary, and are reconstructed for further discussion.


1976 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 917-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric H. Steele ◽  
Raymond T. Nimmer

The legal profession is currently the subject of controversy and criticism. Individual attorneys are often described as unethical and incompetent, while the bar is portrayed as politically partisan, captive of economic interests, and unresponsive to the public interest. Public opinion polls document disrespect for attorneys as a group. Local and national scandals highlight criminal acts of prominent attorneys. The cost, quality, and availability of legal services are matters of public debate.


1953 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-299
Author(s):  
Warren C. Price

Managing editors and executive editors of American newspapers respond eagerly to questions about public opinion polling and comment sharply on many phases of the subject. The author is an associate professor of journalism at Oregon and was on sabbatical leave in 1952-53 for advanced study at Minnesota.


1950 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 101-103
Author(s):  
Arthur N. Feraru

Author(s):  
William W. Franko ◽  
Christopher Witko

Here the authors present the variation that exists in income inequality across the states, and variation in public awareness or concern about income inequality as measured by public opinion polls. Though politicians may decide to tackle income inequality even in the absence of public concern about inequality, the authors argue that government responses are more likely when and where there is a growing awareness of, and concern about, inequality, which is confirmed in the analyses in this book. To examine this question in subsequent chapters, a novel measure of public awareness of rising state inequality is developed. Using these estimates, this chapter shows that the growth in the public concern about inequality responds in part to objective increases in inequality, but also that state political conditions, particularly mass partisanship, shape perceptions of inequality.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022097903
Author(s):  
Alexander P. Landry ◽  
Elliott Ihm ◽  
Jonathan W. Schooler

Metadehumanization, the perception that members of an outgroup dehumanize your group, has been found to exacerbate intergroup conflict by inspiring reciprocal dehumanization of the offending outgroup. Moreover, metadehumanization is distinct from metaprejudice (i.e., the perception that an outgroup hates your group). Given the mutual animosity reported in public opinion polls toward the other side, we believed US–Russia relations would be a worthwhile context in which to extend this model. Therefore, we measured Americans’ levels of metadehumanization and metaprejudice of Russians to determine the association between these perceptions and their hostility toward Russians (Study 1). In this novel intergroup conflict, metadehumanization remained a consequential predictor of outgroup hostility over and above metaprejudice, suggesting that it can exacerbate a broader range of intergroup conflicts than those heretofore examined. Given these findings, we then sought to experimentally differentiate between metadehumanization and metaprejudice. In Study 2, we manipulated both metadehumanization and metaprejudice to (a) determine whether one or both cause greater outgroup hostility and (b) elucidate the underlying mechanisms by which they may produce this effect. Whereas metadehumanization produced greater hostility, metaprejudice did not. Moreover, although both metaperceptions inspired greater prejudice, only metadehumanization led to greater dehumanization. We conclude that metadehumanization may be a particularly potent fomenter of hostility because it inspires reciprocal dehumanization over and above more general negative bias.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Eric Lagenbacher

Although it has not been that long since the articles of the previous special issue devoted to the 2017 Bundestag election and its aftermath have been published, the political situation in Germany appears to have stabilized. After almost six months without a new government, German politics has sunk back into a kind of late-Merkel era normality. Public opinion polls continue to show that the CDU/CSU is slightly above its election outcome, the SPD is still down in the 17–18 percent range, the FDP has lost about 2 percent of its support, while the AfD, Greens and Left Party are up 1–2 percent.


Inter ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 55-79
Author(s):  
Elena Rozhdestvenskaya

The article deals with the changing social contract in the era of the 90s. Combined several levels of analysis: reconstruction of the era of the 90s by methods of public opinion polls and a qualitative analysis of narratives about the era of the 90s, representatives of various social groups (workers, employees / civil servants, entrepreneurs). If public opinion polls the most important events of the era, which made up the historical memory of the generation who participated in the changes of Russian society, the narratives of the 90s contain a description of the experience and reflection of social actors regarding the limits and possibilities of this era. The conceptual framework of the study describes the concept of a social contract as a balance of expectations between its performing individuals and social institutions. The social contract is operationalized as a set of action strategies that have been implemented by individuals and are the subject of their memories in the biographical interview mode. As a result of the study, a specifcation was made for representatives of the above-mentioned social groups of various social contracts that have undergone devaluation and changed during the 90s.


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