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Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Preface -- 1 The Scientific Study of Research Questions -- What Does It Mean to Be Scientific? -- Distinguishing Empirical and Normative Questions -- Reformulating Normative Questions as Empirical -- Research Questions -- The Scientific Research Process -- Exercises -- Suggested Answers to Exercises -- 2 Building Blocks of the Research Process -- Theories, Hypotheses, and Operational Definitions: An Overview -- Types of Hypotheses -- Theoretical Role -- Units of Analysis -- Operational Definitions -- Exercises -- Suggested Answers to Exercises -- 3 Research Design -- The Concept of Causality -- Types of Research Design -- Exercises -- Suggested Answers to Exercises -- 4 Published Data Sources -- The Internet as Data Source -- The Importance of Units of Analysis -- Strategies for Finding Data Sources -- Some General Data Sources -- Demographic Data -- Political and Governmental Data for Nations -- Data on U.S. Government and Politics -- Survey Data -- Content Analysis -- Steps in Content Analysis -- Issues in Content Analysis -- Exercises -- Suggested Answers to Exercises -- 5 Survey Research -- Sampling -- Interviewing -- Writing Survey Items -- Exercises -- Suggested Answers to Exercises -- 6 Statistics: An Introduction -- Levels of Measurement -- Univariate Statistics -- The Concept of Relationship -- Multivariate Statistics -- Exercises -- Suggested Answers to Exercises -- 7 Graphic Display of Data -- Graphics for Univariate Distributions -- Graphics for Multivariate Relationships -- How Not to Lie with Graphics -- The Need for Standardization -- Principles for Good Graphics -- Exercises -- Suggested Answers to Exercise A -- 8 Nominal and Ordinal Statistics -- Correlations for Nominal Variables -- Correlations for Ordinal Variables

While the importance of the question of how often American policy decisions are in agree ment with the preferences of the mass public is clear, there have been only a few limited attempts to provide an empirical answer. The research reported here uses available pub lished national survey results and compares them with policy outcomes. Overall, about two-thirds of the cases demonstrate consistency between public opinion and public policy. There is some variation in consistency among areas of substantive policy, most notably that foreign policy decisions are more often consistent with public preference than domes tic policies. The key factor limiting the extent of consistency appears to be the failure of the political system, particularly the legislative branch, to act quickly on proposals for policy change.

A study of the relationship between PO & national policy outcome for the fifteen year period from 1970 to 1974. All issues for which national opinion survey data were available were included; the primary sources were the Gallup & Harris polls. The record of federal action on these items was determined from the Weekly Reports published by Congressional Quarterly. The issues examined included (1) social welfare, (2) economy & labor, (3) defense, (4) foreign policy, (5) energy & environment, (6) civil rights, (7) reform, & (8) Viet Nam. Results reveal that in approximately 66.6% of the cases, consistency was found between PO & policy outcomes. 'The political process at the national level does tend to respond to public preference, but in a decidely imperfect way.' 1 Table, 1 Appendix. M. Cain.

D. Elazar has previously propounded a theory that there are three distinct migration streams in American history & that each carries a particular strain of political culture Cities of the Prairie: The Metropolitan Frontier and American Politics, New York: Basic Books, 1970). Presented is an attempt to systematically measure the relative strength of those migrational streams at the county level. Following Elazar's typology, 53 variables, including % of population born in different states & nations, strength of religious denominations, & voting results, were taken for each county in Ill. All of these data were from the period 1840 to 1870. When these data were factor analyzed, the first three factors which emerged appeared to reflect the Northern, Southern, & Middle streams of migration. Factor scores for each county provide a measure of the relative strength of each of the three migration streams. These historical background measures prove to be related to the partisan division of the vote from 1952 through 1972. AA.