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Compares religious and political attitudes of Christian right groups; based on a 1983 survey of U.S. ministers.

This article takes issue with the assumption that the Christian right is a monolithic bloc. In a national sample of clergy, self-identified fundamentalists, evangelicals, and nonidentifiers (neither fundamentalists nor nonfundamentalists) are compared on three dimensions: religious attitudes, political attitudes (issue opinions and ideology), and political communications from the pulpit. The self-identification scheme yields groups that are very distinct on all three dimensions.

Voter turnout has declined in elections at all levels of American government. Though much research has been devoted to understanding diminished turnout in national contests, there has been scant attention to factors affecting local electoral participation. In this study, we examine both cross-sectionally and longitudinally the impact on turnout of adopting a reformed plan of government and non-partisanship. Evidence from elections in the 1930s, 1960s, and 1970s suggests that council-manager government and nonpartisanship do, as hypothesized, impede municipal voter turnout.

A study of women entering the political system at the local level attempts to fulfill these objectives: (1) to ascertain the rates of F candidacy & election for city council posts, (2) to determine whether they are more equitably represented at the municipal than at higher government levels, & (3) to gauge whether Ur demographic, SE, & political character- istics tend to promote or hamper the rates of F candidacy &/or electoral success. Data were gathered between May & Oct, 1975. Mailed questionnaires, covering the most recent municipal election, were sent to 838 US cities with populations of over 25,000. The response rate was 95%. Overall findings attest to the profound underrepresentation of women in the local political arena, eg, they were elected to only 10% (410) of the more than 4,000 municipal council posts. It appears that the main problems are related to women becoming candidates rather than being elected once they are on the ballot--ie, when they do run, they win in nearly 50% of the contests. In addition, since women's representation is "negatively related to prestige of office, & since elective office in larger cities would carry more prestige, city size is inversely associated with F representation." Measures of income & education are positively linked to women's candidacy & electoral success. 2 Tables. J. Shiffer.