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Voter access has become a deeply polarized issue in American politics. It is well known that policymakers' positions on election laws are often dictated by whether they think the laws will help their electoral interests and those of their party. But we know little about whether public opinion on election laws is similarly driven by partisan interest or is instead constrained by concerns of procedural legitimacy. To answer this question, I conduct a survey experiment that frames the issue of same-day registration (SDR) in terms of which major party it is expected to help electorally. The results provide clear evidence that both Democrats and Republicans are less likely to support SDR after being told the policy will primarily increase turnout among voters of the opposing party, but little evidence that being told SDR will benefit their own party affects opinion. These findings suggest an asymmetry in citizens' willingness to choose partisan interest over democratic principles based on whether they perceive a rule change as benefiting the in-party or out-party.

This volume investigates the public opinion of the EU in the context of the present economic crisis and other significant challenges currently faced by the Union, the latest being the refugee crisis. Scholarly knowledge in the field of EU attitudes in general and Euroscepticism in particular is thoroughly documented here, and is followed by an analysis of public perceptions of the EU's crisis management capabilities, proving that the EU's legitimacy and effectiveness are currently being challenged to the highest degree.The research-based contribution of this book is two-fold, focusing on EU attitudes at a macro-level on one hand, and the opinions of Romanian experts on the other. It provides insights into attitudes towards the EU in Central and Eastern Europe, a region which is still somewhat underexplored by social sciences scholars, and in Romania in particular. On a larger scale, significant differences between clusters of states are identified, suggesting that not even increasing Euroscepticism manages to create a common frame of reference for all Europeans regarding EU-related issues. In terms of Romanian expert opinion, the book provides evidence for a gradual evolution from highly symbolic and sometimes even triumphalist representations of the EU towards mildly critical positions, based on instrumental perceptions. Such changes mark a new stage of Europeanization, in which the EU's presence has become ordinary. For the Eastern European elite, increased familiarity with the EU accommodates demitization and criticism without denouncing European integration as a doomed project

THIS PAPER CONCERNS THE EFFECTS OF PRIMARY SEASON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES ON PUBLIC OPINION. USING A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN, IT INVESTIGATES ONE OF THE DEMOCRATIC DEBATES CONDUCTED DURING THE 1988 CAMPAIGN. IT ATTEMPTS TO LINK THE ACTUAL STATEMENTS OF THE CANDIDATES WITH THE REACTIONS OF THE SUBJECTS. IT FINDS THAT VIEWERS' OPINIONS OF THE CANDIDATES CHANGED DRAMATICALLY AFTER WATCHING THE DEBATE, AND THAT THESE CHANGES ARE RELATED TO SUBJECTS' ASSESSMENTS OF THE CANDIDATES' IMAGES AND DEBATING "STYLES" (RATHER THAN THEIR PRESENTATIONS OF SUBSTANTIVE ISSUE POSITIONS). IT SPECULATES ON SOME OF THE REASONS FOR THE FINDINGS, AND DISCUSS THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRIMARY SEASON AND GENERAL ELECTION DEBATES.

Research on racial resentment has been meticulously developed, tested, and analyzed with white Americans in mind—yet black Americans have also responded to this battery for the past three decades. To date, little to nothing is known about the implications of responses to the racial resentment battery among black Americans. A burgeoning literature on blacks' intragroup attitudes suggests that over time, black Americans have increasingly attributed racial inequality to individual failings as opposed to structural forces. As such, unpacking blacks' responses to the canonical racial resentment battery may provide further insight into the micro-foundations of black public opinion. Using survey data from 1986 to 2016, we engage in a systematic quantitative examination of the role of racial resentment in predicting black and white Americans' opinions on racial policies, "race-coded" policies, and nonracialized policies. Along the way, we highlight the existence of wide heterogeneity among black respondents and call for further investigation that identifies similarities and differences in the foundations of white and black public opinion.

During the 1996 election campaign, the Liberal‐National Party Coalition pledged that if elected it would partly privatise Telstra. The pledge was a central part of its campaign pitch. This paper argues that the proposal came at a time when the tide of public opinion had moved against privatisation; it shows how the Opposition used poll data both to present its own proposal in the most favourable light and to portray the difference between its position and that of Labor Government's as minimal; and, using the surveys commissioned by both sides, it evaluates the success of this strategy. More generally, it suggests that in a "post‐ideological" age, party ideology remains important. And it illustrates how polls can be used by parties not just to establish what the majority thinks but to galvanise support, neutralise opposition and convert those who harbour doubts.

Japan 311 earthquake/tsunami and the following nuclear disaster in Fukushima create a strong anti-nuclear public opinion in Taiwan. Thus, the government was forced to seal Taiwan's fourth nuclear power plant at Dragon Gate, wavering its final decision. Nonetheless, the immediate damage caused by the nuclear disaster is far less than earthquake/tsunami. Why should people be scared by the nuclear disaster rather than the huge destructiveness of earthquake/tsunami? Indeed, the real danger after a nuclear disaster is the long-term health risks caused by radiation, but the health risks of unhealthy diet and lifestyle are actually far greater than those from radiation. Since people can accept unhealthy diet and lifestyle, why can't they accept nuclear power plant? Moreover, the climax of anti-nuclear public opinion in Taiwan was not reached at the immediate aftermath of 2011 3/11 earthquake/tsunami but three years later in 2014. Why was it? This article addresses all these puzzles and argues that, anti-nuclear public opinion in Taiwan is the product of lack of knowledge and political manipulation. With more information and without political ideology, the anti-nuclear public opinion in Taiwan will be changed. This argument is later confirmed by the internet questionnaire survey of article.

THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES SOME OF THE ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING THE USE OF AGGREGATE DATA FOR POLICY ANALYSIS. PUBLIC OPINION DATA DEMONSTRATES THE LOW SALIENCE OF REGRESSION OF TAXATION AND CALLS INTO QUESTION THE VALIDITY OF A COMMON INDICE IN AGGREGATE ANALYSIS. THIS, AND RELATED EXAMPLES DEMONSTRATE THE VALUE OF SUPPLEMENTING AGGREGATE DATA ANALYSIS WITH DIRECT EVIDENCE OF PUBLIC ATTITUDES.

This article reports some preliminary results from a comparative research project on how security issues have been perceived in the twelve E.C. countries since the early 1970s among the mass public. This period has been characterized by breathtaking changes in the political and military world environment. How have Europeans reacted to these changes and what are their opinions on the future shape of European defense policy? The empirical evidence is based on a secondary analysis of public opinion surveys conducted in the European Community in the last twenty-one years. The trend analyses show that Europeans are overwhelmingly favorable to the creation of a common European security organization. This does not mean, however, that NATO is no longer thought to be essential or that the E.C. should supplant or replace NATO as the most important forum for making decisions about the security of Western Europe.

The role of public opinion in American democracy has been a central concern of scholars who frequently examine how public opinion influences policy makers and how politicians, especially presidents, try to shape public opinion. But in Speaking with the People's Voice: How Presidents Invoke Public Opinion, Jeffrey P. Mehltretter Drury asks a different question that adds an important new dimension to the study of public opinion: How do presidents rhetorically use public opinion in their speeches? In a careful analysis supported by case studies and discrete examples, Drury develops the concept of invoked public opinion to study the modern presidents' use of public opinion as a rhetorical resource. He defines the term as the rhetorical representation of the beliefs and values of US citizens. Speaking with the People's Voice considers both the strategic and democratic value of invoked public opinion by analyzing how modern presidents argumentatively deploy references to the beliefs and values of US citizens as persuasive appeals as well as acts of political representation in their nationally televised speeches.