Search results

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1967

Saadia Touval's important contributions to the study of mediation included an emphasis on the interests and motivations of mediators, hitherto often assumed to be pure or non-existent. As a result, legitimacy is usually considered to be inherent in the selfless mediator, although in internal affairs, mediation is illegitimate meddling. At the same time, much of the work on mediation either exaggerates or underestimates the nature of leverage. Public opinion also has an important but ambiguous relation to mediation. Interests, public opinion and leverage were topics where Touval helped to establish a more realistic appreciation, as illustrated in this second commemorative issue of International Negotiation. Adapted from the source document.

THE THESIS INVESTIGATES THE STRATEGIES THE PRESIDENT UTILIZES TO INFLUENCE PUBLIC OPINION--A RESOURCE THAT MAKES THE PRESIDENT MORE POWERFUL, AND IS USED FOR GETTING HIS PROGRAMS PASSED THROUGH THE OTHER BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT. FOCUSING ON GERALD FORD AND HIS SUCCESSORS, THE THESIS OUTLINES THREE STRATEGIES USED TO INFLUENCE PUBLIC OPINION: TAKING ONES CASES DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE, CONTROLLING THE MEDIA, AND UTILIZE OPINION LEADERS. THE AUTHOR ARGUES THAT USE OF ALL THREE STRATEGIES IS THE OPTIMAL WAY OF GAINING AND KEEPING HIGH PUBLIC OPINION.

THIS ARTICLE CENTERS ITS ATTENTION ON THE ROLE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN STATE ADMINISTRATION IN DEVELOPED SOCIALIST SOCIETY. THE AUTHOR DEFINES THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN THE COMPLEX MECHANISM OF DEVELOPING, ADOPTING, AND IMPLEMENTING ADMINISTRATIVE DECISIONS, AND OF CHARACTERIZING THE MANNER IN WHICH IT IS ACTUALLY IDENTIFIED AND USED IN THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES.

As the only complete compilation of polls taken by the Gallup Organization, The Gallup Poll is an invaluable tool for ascertaining the pulse of American public opinion throughout the year and for documenting changing perceptions over time of crucial core issues.

A review of research findings and polling data about Americans' attitudes on climate change reveals a lack of meaningful long-term change in mass opinion. Instead, the structure of Americans' attitudes toward belief in climate change's existence, concern about its consequences, and demand for policy response is similar to that regarding many other issues in contemporary US politics: stability in aggregate opinion that masks partisan and ideological polarization enhanced by communications from elites. But features of the climate change problem elicit some distinctive determinants of opinion, including individuals' trust in science, risk processing, and personal experience. Although our review of the literature and data leaves us skeptical that majority opinion will spur elected officials anytime soon to undertake the costly solutions necessary to tackle this problem comprehensively at the national level, we identify several avenues by which attitudes might promote less substantial but nevertheless consequential policy action.

Foreign policy seems to command more public attention than domestic policy and yet—insofar as it has been, researched—public opinion on foreign policy seems to have less impact on governmental decisions than does opinion in most other issue areas. There are at least two reasons, one normative and one empirical, why public opinion can be regarded as pertinent to some foreign policy questions—especially those associated with "life and death." Normatively, it is desirable for political leaders in a democracy to commit national resources in ways generally approved by the populace. Large scale military commtiments should, if at all possible, meet with the approval of public opinion. Empirically, if they do not, experience has shown there are circumstances in which public disapproval of the course of foreign policy may be registered in national elections. Specifically, our one recent experience with a situation of partial mobilization and a limited but large-scale and indefinite commitment to military action in Korea did in time produce a distribution of opinion that suggested the war was very unpopular. And though its precise impact on the 1952 presidential election is difficult to assess there is little doubt that the Korean issue contributed significantly to the Eisenhower landslide.Among the questions raised by the Korean experience is whether the American public will easily tolerate the prosecution of long drawn-out wars of partial mobilization. Therefore, it is not surprising that another such war, in Vietnam, has stimulated a concern with public opinion.

Reprints an article originally published in 1969 by this former Vice President of NAPOR (National Assoc for Public Opinion Research) & then-current chairman of the Executive Committee of International Research Associates, Inc, in which she reflected on the field's past & speculated on its future. The emergence of public opinion research in the 1930s & 1940s is recalled, & new developments, particularly in international research, are recounted & evaluated. The future of cross-national opinion surveys & the value of an international perspective are discussed. K. Hyatt Stewart