A CHANGING POLITICAL AGENDA? THE STRUCTURE OF POLITICAL ATTITUDES IN BRITAIN, 1974-87

The 1970s and 1980s have been a period of flux in Western partysystems, with two apparent indicators being the success of rightwingparties and the growth of New Politics issues within electorates.Two theories have been utilized to explain these changes. Thefirst is that they are caused by shifts in popular opinion,which are reflected in elite behavior, while the second arguesthat they are the result of political elites acting indepndentlyof mass opinion. In this paper, we test these two theories usingBritain between 1974 and 1987 as a case study. Using comparablequestions from four national surveys, we find that mass politicalattitudes have changed very little over the period, althoughthere is more change evident on economic than on noneconomicissues. No support is forthcoming for the propositions thatthe British electorate is becoming more conservative or thatNew Politics issues are becoming more important. Overall, itappears that the British party political elite has moved furtherapart than has the electorate. In short, political change inBritain in the 1970s and 1980s is more elite-influenced thanmass-influenced.     

ATTITUDES TOWARDS DEMOCRACY IN ARGENTINA DURING THE TRANSITION PERIOD

Transitions to democracy are good settings to observe possiblechanges of beliefs, attitudes and values. This paper analyzesshifts in democratic beliefs during Argentine political transitiontowards democracy. Through the analysis of different surveysin the period 1982–8 diverse patterns concerning two setsof democratic attitudes were observed. Those dealing with participatorydemocracy proved to be not only highly supported but also stablethroughout the period. On the other hand the libertarian orientationsexhibit lower consensus and proved to be much more unstable.They grew at the beginning of the transition but later a regressionto pretransition levels took place, associated with the increaseof socio-economic discontent. Also a relationship between lesslibertarian democratic attitudes and lower socio-economic levelswas observed. The findings call into question the socializationeffects of democratic institutions during relatively short periodsin a context of economic crisis and rising discontent.     

THE MARGINS OF JUSTICE ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE LAW AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM AMONG JEWS AND ARABS IN ISRAEL

Based on a national survey, attitudes towards the law and thelegal system of both Jews and Arabs in Israel were measured.Findings support the notion that Arabs as members of a minoritygroup express a higher degree of disobedience and express ahigher sense of injustice compared to the Jewish subjects. Findingstend to point to growing disobedience in the Israeli society,indicated by 22 percent of the Jewish subjects and 53 percentof the Arabs who express their readiness to take the law intotheir hands.     

CANADIAN AND AMERICAN ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AND THE PRIVATE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM

This paper compares the attitudes of Canadians and Americanstoward their governments and selected aspects of the privateenterprise system. It examines some of the historical differencesbetween the two countries and hypothesizes that these differenceswill be reflected in current attitudes. Further, it hypothesizesthat Canada's two main linguistic groups—the English andthe French—will be closer in attitude to each other thaneither will be to the American sample.     

VOTERS AND CITIZENS IN A NEW DEMOCRACY: SOME TREND DATA ON POLITICAL ATTITUDES IN SPAIN

General Franco's death in 1975 saw the end of a long dictatorshipand the beginning of political changes of extraordinary importance.This article examines the most outstanding political attitudesof the Spanish people during the processes of transition anddemocratic consolidation. Using survey data from different sources,the authors try to trace the patterns of continuity and changewhich arise from the political indicators selected. The findingsreveal moderate, reformist and supportive attitudes towardsdemocratic principles. These attitudes are compatible with perceptionsof political mistrust and inefficacy, and with limited politicalparticipation.     

MASS MEDIA AND POLITICAL OUTSPOKENNESS IN HONG KONG: LINKING THE THIRD-PERSON EFFECT AND THE SPIRAL OF SILENCE

This study analyzes the impact of perceptions of the opinionsof others on political outspokenness in Hong Kong. Two relatedtheories, the third-person effect and the spiral of silence,are tested in the context of public opinion regarding the Sino-Britishdispute over Hong Kong's political future. To estimate the potentialinfluence of perceived public opinion on political outspokennessduring this political crisis, a representative telephone surveyof 660 respondents in Hong Kong was conducted in November 1993. As hypothesized by the third-person effect, perceptions of theinfluence of media reports about the Sino-British dispute onothers were found to be consistently greater than perceptionsof influence on self. Similar to previous findings, respondentswith a higher level of education were more likely to believethat the mass media influence others more than themselves. Thestudy also found empirical support for the spiral of silencehypothesis. Politically unconcerned respondents were less willingto voice their political opinions publicly when they perceivedthe majority opinion not to be on their side. Findings alsoindicate that the third-person effect indirectly influencesthe spiral of silence process through its impact on perceptionsof public opinion.     

GENDER, NEWS MEDIA EXPOSURE AND POLITICAL CYNICISM: PUBLIC OPINION OF HONG KONG'S FUTURE TRANSITION

Marginalized from the center of power, women in Hong Kong maybe particularly vulnerable to the future political transition,as the territory prepares for an exchange from British to Chineserule. How do women feel about the impending changes in HongKong? According to results from a recent (April 1993) representativetelephone survey in Hong Kong (n = 502), women are less likelyto have faith in the political future of Hong Kong than men.Moreover, this relationship between gender and political cynicismbecomes more pronounced when controlling for socio-economicstatus and is more intensive among persons in their middle years.Contrary to expectations, exposure to newspapers does not encouragedistrust, but instead appears to be associated with less cynicismof the future transition, at least among men. Women, on theother hand, are less likely to be susceptible to press coverage.In a context in which political transition is pending, suchas in Hong Kong, it is imperative to attempt to understand theevolution and disintegration of political cynicism, particularlyamong those who may be vulnerable to political change.     

THE POLITICAL,ECONOMIC, AND TECHNOLOGICAL ROOTS OF SOME LEGAL ISSUES IN LIBRARY NETWORKING

No abstract available for this article.     

THE CONTINGENCIES OF ORDINARY CITIZEN APPEARANCES IN POLITICAL TELEVISION NEWS

While few would deny the crucial role of citizens in democratic governance, there are still only a few studies that focus on ordinary citizens’ inclusion in political news coverage. First, we present a number of factors conditioning ordinary citizens’ appearances in the news. Second, based on the discussion of these factors, we formulate a number of research questions. After conducting an extensive content analysis covering almost 6000 actors appearing in political news coverage in the two major Danish broadcasters, DR1 and TV2, between 1994 and 2007, we find that ordinary citizens appear more often in reports on intrusive issues such as welfare, that they appear more often in news items positioned later in the news bulletins, that they, largely speaking, appear more often closer to election day, but that there are almost no differences between commercial and public service broadcasting. These findings are discussed in the light of past research on media source use and the ongoing changing foundations of political communication.     

POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE, ATTRIBUTION, AND INFERRED INTEREST IN POLITICS: THE OPERATION OF BUFFER ITEMS

Bishop (1987) observed that being unable to answer a politicalknowledge question decreased self-reported interest in publicaffairs. This effect was unaffected by the introduction of upto 101 unrelated buffer items. In contrast, a single bufferitem that provided respondents with an external explanationfor their lack of knowledge greatly reduced the context effectin the present study. Implications for the operation of bufferitems are discussed.     

THE INFLUENCE OF GENDER ON PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS IN BRITAIN

Controversy concerning the issue of homosexual rights and practiceshas intensified in Britain over the last decade. Despite thisincrease in intensity, however, the question of mass publicopinion in relation to homosexual rights and practices has receivedalmost no empirical investigation. In an effort to remedy thissituation, this article focuses on both the role of respondents'gender as well as their perceptions concerning the gender ofparticipants in a homosexual relationship (both sexes versusgay men) in distinguishing their attitudes toward the publicacceptance of homosexuals and the adoption rights of lesbiansand gay men. Using nationally representative data from the BritishSocial Attitudes Surveys, we found that, whereas both respondents'gender and the gender of participants in a homosexual relationshipdemonstrated a significant influence on attitudes toward thepublic acceptance of homosexuals, they were unrelated to theadoption rights of lesbians or gay men. Even in relation tothe public acceptance of homosexuals, however, gender was notthe only, or even the most important, attribute in distinguishingindividual opinion in this instance. Other stronger and moreconsistent influences were education, age, and attitudes towardeither pre-marital or extra-marital sexual relations. The implicationsof these findings for both policy makers and homosexual activistsare discussed.     

POLITICAL VIEWS OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE

The emerging political consciousness of the Russian people isanalyzed against a background of severe constraints in the Sovietera on public opinion formation. Problems in the transitionto democracy and representative government are reflected inheightened interest in politics, volatile levels of confidencein key political institutions, and deep uncertainty about thefuture in both economic and political terms.     

THE RENAISSANCE OF A RUBRIC: POLITICAL CULTURE AS CONCEPT AND THEORY

In recent years, several prominent scholars have attempted toreinvigorate political-culture theory and defend it from thechallenge that rational-choice theory poses. Yet the primarythreat to the ‘renaissance’ of political-culturetheory comes not from rational-choice theory but from politicalculture's continued weakness as concept and theory. Even afterthe theoretical and empirical defenses provided in recent years,political culture remains poorly explicated along seven distinctdimensions: (1) how to define the concept; (2) how to disentanglesubcultures (for example an élite political culture)from a society's overall political culture; (3) how to integratethe many individual-level orientations of which the conceptis composed; (4) how to create a societal-level variable fromindividual-level components; (5) if the foregoing have beenresolved, how to measure the concept; (6) how to derive hypothesesabout individual political behavior from the subjective orientationsunder study; and (7) how political culture interacts with institutionsand other attributes of a polity to produce a propensity forcertain types of political outcomes. With these tasks left uncompleted,political culture remains no more than a rubric under whichdifferent authors focus on different individual orientations,employ different measures and different methods of aggregatingthe orientations, then test different propositions about thelinks between those individual orientations and politics.