Beware the People Weeping: Public Opinion and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

1983 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 977
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Pressly ◽  
Thomas Reed Turner
Author(s):  
Ryan W. Keating

In April 1861, newly elected president Abraham Lincoln found himself in a precarious situation. Although he had won the presidency in the November elections, his victory was by no means a mandate from the people for the Republican Party platform. The nation was perilously divided. Winning less than half the popular vote in 1860, the tall, gaunt lawyer from Illinois looked on as his nation teetered on the brink of civil war. To keep the nation together, the new commander in chief drew support from a rather tenuous alliance of political rivals openly divided in their opinions about the actions of their southern brethren. The attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, however, galvanized public opinion throughout the north and fostered, at least momentarily, a powerful wartime alliance between Republicans and Democrats that allowed Lincoln to carry out a war to preserve the Union. As Federal troops lowered the Stars and Stripes in surrender from the ramparts of the bastion in Charleston Harbor, banners were hoisted in towns and cities across the North as men of all ages, ethnicities, classes, and backgrounds rushed to the defense of their flag and their nation....


1983 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 1070
Author(s):  
Frank L. Byrne ◽  
Thomas Reed Turner

1982 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 587
Author(s):  
Richard N. Current ◽  
Thomas Reed Turner

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 266-273
Author(s):  
Ivan S. Palitai

The article is devoted to the modern Russian party system. In the first part of the article, the author shows the historical features of the parties formation in Russia and analyzes the reasons for the low turnout in the elections to the State Duma in 2016. According to the author the institutional reasons consist in the fact that the majority of modern political parties show less and less ability to produce new ideas, and the search for meanings is conducted on the basis of the existing, previously proposed sets of options. Parties reduce the topic of self-identification in party rhetoric, narrowing it down to “branded” ideas or focusing on the image of the leader. In addition, the author shows the decrease in the overall political activity of citizens after the 2011 elections, and points out that the legislation amendments led to the reduction of the election campaigns duration and changes in the voting system itself. The second part of the article is devoted to the study of the psychological aspects of the party system. The author presents the results of the investigation of images of the parties as well as the results of the population opinion polls, held by the centers of public opinion study. On the basis of this data, the author concludes that according to the public opinion the modern party system is ineffective, and the parties don’t have real political weight, which leads to the decrease of the interest in their activities and confidence in them. The author supposes that all this may be the consequence of the people’s fatigue from the same persons in politics, but at the same time the electorate’s desire to see new participants in political processes is formulated rather vaguely, since, according to the people, this might not bring any positive changes.


Author(s):  
Jim Tomlinson

This introduction outlines how the idea of a national economy subject to governmental management was constructed in Britain out of the dissolution of the unmanaged economy of the pre-1914 era. It argues that a key turning point came in 1931 with the departure from the gold standard and the introduction of protection. But, it is argued, it was only from the 1940s that national economic management was combined with ‘managing the people’, through major efforts to shape public opinion on the economy. This chapter also summarizes the development of the major kinds of economic statistics which underpinned both facets of economic management.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Beckers

Abstract Vox pops, interviews with ordinary people on the street, are one of the most common ways to represent public opinion in television news. Research found that they influence audience judgments more than static base-rate information such as poll results. However, little research has compared vox pops with vivified base-rate information. Most research studying vox pops assumed they are included in the news because of their apparent attractiveness and trustworthiness to audiences. Using a television news experiment comparing statistical base-rate information vivified by an expert with vox pop statements, this study shows that news items containing vox pop statements are perceived as being less attractive and trustworthy than items containing the expert statement. No difference is found between the two types of public opinion information in their influence on perceived public opinion, but vox pops do influence audiences’ personal opinion more strongly.


2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
S.А. Kuemzhieva ◽  
◽  
V.V. Goncharov ◽  
D.D. Oblogin ◽  
◽  
...  

The article is devoted to the study of the need to develop and implement on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory a project of a standard electronic platform for monitoring public opinion on health issues in the municipality. The authors substantiate the position that the powers delegated by the people to the public authorities need constant control by the public. Without public control, there is a risk of appropriation of power, usurpation of power by individual state authorities and their officials. The mechanism of feedback between the authorities and the people, one of the elements of which is the monitoring of public opinion, plays an important role in the implementation of the constitutional principle of democracy. At the same time, it is important to monitor public opinion on local issues at the municipal level, since these issues affect the vast majority of the country's population. A significant segment of local issues is somehow related to the organization and functioning of health care institutions and the provision of medical services to the population. In this regard, it seems necessary to develop and implement in the territory of the Krasnodar Territory a project of a standard electronic platform for monitoring public opinion on health issues in the municipality. The article analyzes the goals and objectives of this project, examines the main problems associated with its formation and implementation, justifies the main stages of project preparation, as well as a list of measures to improve regional legislation that will contribute to the implementation of this project. The paper uses a number of methods of scientific research, in particular: the methods of induction; deduction; classification; statistical; sociological; comparative-legal; historical; formal-logical.


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