James M. Glaser

Principled Tolerance and the American Mass Public

Americans appear to be more tolerant of deviant opinions and life-styles now than they were a generation ago. Recent research by Sullivan and his colleagues suggests, however, that this apparent change is largely illusory – a product not of an increase in principled support for tolerance, but rather of shifts in public dislike for, and hence intolerance of, particular political groups. An alternative account of tolerance is proposed which shows that citizen attitudes on issues of tolerance are remarkably consistent – far more so than has been commonly appreciated. In particular, the empirical analysis distinguishes two kinds of consistency – ‘principled’ and ‘situational’. Using log-linear techniques, it demonstrates that substantial numbers of the general public now support a variety of forms of tolerance consistently; and do so, not for reasons peculiar to each, but rather on principle. The broader implications of the results for the study of public opinion and democratic theory are noted.

Race, campaign politics, and the realignment in the South

Since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, while Republican candidates have carried the South in presidential elections, the Democratic Party has persisted in winning southern congressional elections. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, this text examines this political phenomenon.

Social Context and Inter-Group Political Attitudes: Experiments in Group Conflict Theory

Previous studies of group conflict theory look at the relationship between racial balance in a particular area (precinct, county, etc.) and racial attitudes or political behaviour within that area. While of value, there are significant methodological disadvantages to this approach. Here, I address those problems using public opinion experiments in which I ask respondents whether they would allocate political goods proportionally given different (randomly assigned) hypothetical racial environments. The experiment yields confirmatory results, with non-blacks more likely to support proportionality in less black than heavily black environments. In a second experiment, I find that the same relationship is much weaker when the variations in population are non-racial. Finally, I show that the relationship also holds for blacks and argue that this is theoretically consistent.

Putting the Party Back into Politics: An Experiment Testing Whether Election Day Festivals Increase Voter Turnout

This essay describes a series of pilot studies designed to shed light on the question of whether the festive, social environment surrounding old-fashioned elections be recreated in ways that increase voter turnout. During 2005 and 2006, we conducted randomized experiments in 14 geographic areas. Results suggest that social gatherings address the collective action problem often attributed to elections as well as represent a potentially valuable voter mobilization tactic.

The Preference Puzzle: Educational Differences in Racial-Political Attitudes

Education leads to racial liberalism in a great many instances. In this piece, I show that better educated whites are more racially liberal than less educated whites on issues involving minority preferences, with one notable exception. Better educated whites are significantly more opposed to affirmative action in university admissions than less educated whites. This is a puzzle, and my resolution of it is informed by group conflict theory and how university preferences evoke the group interests of better educated whites as they approach the issue. Additionally, I show that the group interests of less educated whites also are engaged by the issue. In the context of the survey I study, the class orientations of the less educated are roused, and, I argue, lower status individuals are encouraged to view university preferences as an opportunity to “share the burden” of affirmative action, contributing to the puzzling reversal in the relationship of education and racial-political attitudes.

BLACK AND WHITE PERCEPTIONS OF PARTY DIFFERENCES

Despite a comparative disadvantage vis-à-vis whites in resources like education that often are considered to lead to political sophistication, African Americans show signs of being a rather politically sophisticated group of people. Given that better educated people are much more likely than those with less education to see larger differences between Democrats and Republicans, the propensity for blacks to perceive larger differences between the parties, both in general and on specific issues, is striking. This puzzle is explained by the fact that education has a huge impact on seeing partisan differences for whites, but not for blacks. That this understanding of the structure of American politics has so completely penetrated black public opinion is quite remarkable. Strength of partisanship, and to a lesser degree, racial consciousness, appear to be largely responsible for blacks (particularly less educated blacks) perceiving such stark party differences.

The Challenge of Campaign Watching: Seven Lessons of Participant-Observation Research.

Steven Kelman, Harvard University (on leave, working in the government) Norman Luttberg, Texas A&M University Albert Matheny, University of Florida Melinda Mueller, Eastern Illinois University Gary Nederman, University of Arizona Vincent K. Pollard, University of Hawaii (Ph.D. candidate) David Rausch, Fairmont State College Mark Rush, Washington and Lee University Steffen Schmidt, Iowa State University Aron Tannenbaum, Clemson University Jean Torcum, California State University, Sacramento Elliot Vittes, University of Central Florida