scholarly journals Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Published Opinion Polls

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Moy ◽  
Eike Mark Rinke
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Policy Maker ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Local Newspaper ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls ◽  
Normative Role

It is a truism to speak of the key normative role that public opinion polls play in contemporary democratic societies. Theorists and practitioners have long extolled how polls inextricably link citizens to their elected officials. Indeed, public opinion polls not only offer citizens a mechanism with which to express their sentiment on key issues of the day but also provide policy makers with information about what their constituents might or might not desire. Citizens may be able to express their views on a particular issue through individual acts such as donating money to a cause or writing a letter to the editor of a local newspaper, but along with voting polls are one of the few opportunities that offer the mass public equal voice. Moreover, the role that polls play in the citizen–policy maker relationship hinges upon their dissemination by the mass media.

Public Opinion and the Democratic Peace

2013 ◽  
Vol 107 (4) ◽  
pp. 849-865 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL R. TOMZ ◽  
JESSICA L. P. WEEKS
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Peace ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls ◽  
Shed Light

One of the most striking findings in political science is the democratic peace: the absence of war between democracies. Some authors attempt to explain this phenomenon by highlighting the role of public opinion. They observe that democratic leaders are beholden to voters and argue that voters oppose war because of its human and financial costs. This logic predicts that democracies should behave peacefully in general, but history shows that democracies avoid war primarily in their relations with other democracies. In this article we investigate not whether democratic publics are averse to war in general, but whether they are especially reluctant to fight other democracies. We embedded experiments in public opinion polls in the United States and the United Kingdom and found that individuals are substantially less supportive of military strikes against democracies than against otherwise identical autocracies. Moreover, our experiments suggest that shared democracy pacifies the public primarily by changing perceptions of threat and morality, not by raising expectations of costs or failure. These findings shed light on a debate of enduring importance to scholars and policy makers.

Public Opinion, Organized Labor, and the Limits of New Deal Liberalism, 1936–1945

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Schickler ◽  
Devin Caughey
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
The New Deal ◽  
Opinion Polls

The seemingly wide opening for liberal domestic policy innovation by the U.S. federal government in the early-to-mid-1930s gave way to a much more limited agenda in the late 1930s and 1940s. The latter years saw the consolidation and gradual extension of several key programs (e.g., Social Security and Keynesian macroeconomic management), but also the frustration of liberal hopes for an expansive “cradle-to-grave” welfare state marked by strong national unions, national health insurance, and full employment policies. Drawing upon rarely used early public opinion polls, we explore the dynamics of public opinion regarding New Deal liberalism during this pivotal era. We argue that a broadly based reaction against labor unions created a difficult backdrop for liberal programmatic advances. We find that this anti-labor reaction was especially virulent in the South but divided even Northern Democrats, thus creating an effective wedge issue for Republicans and their Southern conservative allies. More generally, we find that the mass public favored most of the specific programs created by the New Deal, but was hardly clamoring for major expansions of the national government's role in the late 1930s and 1940s. These findings illuminate the role played by the South in constraining New Deal liberalism while also highlighting the tenuousness of the liberal majority in the North.

Campaigns, Images and Polls: Mass Media Coverage of the 1984 Canadian Election

1988 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. H. Wagenberg ◽  
W. C. Soderlund ◽  
W. I. Romanow ◽  
E. D. Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Radio Networks ◽  
National Election ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Media ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls

AbstractShort-term factors played a greater than usual role in the 1984 national election. Media coverage of the campaign therefore had a crucial impact. This study documents the coverage of leaders, parties and substantive issues by the major television and radio networks and 18 newspapers selected by region and language. A major finding is that the media reported results of public opinion polls to an unprecedented degree. This was one facet of the featuring of “horserace” issues over more substantive socio-economic ones. The data lend credence to the fears of those who feel that essential democratic goals of the electoral process are being undermined. The study also suggests rethinking the “no effects” theory of polling and electoral behaviour.

Public Opinion Polls on Japan

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

Growing Inequality and Public Awareness of Inequality in the States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William W. Franko ◽  
Christopher Witko
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Perceptions Of Inequality ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls

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.

Hated but still human: Metadehumanization leads to greater hostility than metaprejudice

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022097903
Author(s):  
Alexander P. Landry ◽  
Elliott Ihm ◽  
Jonathan W. Schooler
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
The Other ◽  
Intergroup Conflict ◽  
Negative Bias ◽  
Intergroup Conflicts ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls

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.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Eric Lagenbacher
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Election Outcome ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
German Politics ◽  
Left Party ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls

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.

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