Kenneth D. Wald

The Politics of Gay Rights in American Communities: Explaining Antidiscrimination Ordinances and Policies

Theory: The adoption of local gay rights ordinances and policies is approached from two broad theoretical frameworks-the urbanism/diversity approach and alternative perspectives rooted in social movement theory. Hypotheses: The adoption of gay rights ordinances/policies is a function of: (1) the level of urbanization and social diversity; (2) the social and political resources of the gay and lesbian population; (3) the political opportunity structure in the community; and (4) the balance between traditionalist and liberal religious groups. Method: Multivariate logistic regression analysis is used on a data set comprising 126 cities and counties with gay rights ordinances/policies and 125 localities chosen at random. Results: Consistent with urbanism theory, population size is the single largest factor differentiating the two types of communities. In addition to urbanism, the prospects for including sexual orientation as a protected category are influenced by the extent of political and organizational mobilization among the gay and lesbian community, the political opportunity structure in the locality, and the presence of morallytraditional religious groups. These findings reinforce the value of incorporating cultural themes and social movement theory in the study of policy outcomes.

Crosses on the Ballot: Patterns of British Voter Alignment since 1885

In an exploration of mass voter alignments in Great Britain, Kenneth D. Wald illuminates the electoral consequences of major social divisions and the relationship between social structure and partisanship. He establishes that the transition from religion to social class as the chief influence on British voting occurred after World War I, as most scholars have presumed, rather than before the War, as a number of recent revisionist discussions have claimed.Originally published in 1983.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

THE POLITICS OF RELIGION IN AMERICA Issues for Investigation

This article seeks (1) to bring some coherence to a growing, but rather disparate, volume of “religion and politics” research, and (2) to chart some directions for future research. Given the vast nature of the field of inquiry, the focus of the discussion is limited specifically to behavioral studies of the role of religion in American political life.

AN EXPLORATION OF ADULTS’ RELIGIOUS ORIENTATIONS AND THE THEIR PHILOSOPHIES OF HUMAN NATURE

Do individuals of differing religious orientations also differ in their philosophies of human nature? This question was examined by interviewing a representative sample of the adult population of Memphis, Tennessee. Altogether, 359 adults were questioned about their religious beliefs and practices, their answers yielding scores on four religious dimensions: Christian Orthodoxy, Church Involvement, Devotionalism and Theocracy. Respondents were also administered a revised version of Wrightsmans Philosophies of Human Nature Scale which produced scores on five dimensions: Cynicism, Internal Locus of Control, Goodness, Complexity and Variability. These two sets of measures were submitted to canonical correlation analysis. Two significant correlations were revealed, providing empirical support for the contention that peoples religious outlook and their views of human nature are linked. The first canonical correlation of .35 (p < .001) suggested that people who adhere to orthodox Christian tenets, who make a habit of private devotions, and who are active in their churches see others as basically altruistic and truthful, hard to understand, and externally controlled. The second canonical correlation of .21 (p < .01) suggested that high levels of religious activism (in terms of participation in both church activities and private devotions) are associated with a belief in the uniformity of human nature. The demographic background of people exhibiting these patterns of belief was explored in an effort to interpret the correlations.

Religious Elites and Public Opinion: The Impact of the Bishops' Peace Pastoral

In their 1983 pastoral letter on war and peace, the Catholic bishops attempted to sway American public opinion against the arms race. Polling data suggest that The Challenge of Peace stimulated a sharp but short-lived reaction against military spending among American Catholics. The message was best received by Catholics strongly tied to their church, reversing a historical correlation between religiosity and nationalism. The pastoral must be judged relatively successful in its mission, particularly in light of the many barriers to attitude change. Greater sensitivity to those obstacles could enhance the success of future efforts at persuasive communication by church authorities.

The Election of Openly Gay Public Officials in American Communities

As a newly emergent political minority, lesbians and gay men have begun to seek representation in political office, particularly at the local level. Using a purposeful sample of 126 cities and counties, the authors explore openly gay candidacies for, and election to, public office in the early 1990s. They employed four theoretical models—urbanism/social diversity, resource mobilization, political opportunity structure, and communal protest—that have been useful in explaining African-American, Latino, and female electoral success. The nature and pattern of electoral activities of lesbians and gay men are similar to those of other disadvantaged minorities.

REALIGNMENT THEORY AND BRITISH PARTY DEVELOPMENT: A CRITIQUE*

This article examines the applicability of critical election theory to British party development under the Third Reform Act. Contrary to claims by several authors, the general elections of 1886 and 1906 showed none of the features associated with critical realignments—high rates of participation, electoral instability, durable changes in the social basis of party support. The realignment model, which grew out of distinctive features of the American polity, does not seem appropriate in the British system.

The Closeness-Turnout Hypothesis a Reconsideration

According to the durable “closeness-turnout hypothesis,” a close election will generate high interest in a campaign and appear to invest the individual vote with unusual significance, thus stimulating high participation rates. But from the competing perspective of “selective information flow,” the perception of a close election will reach only the voters who already maintain substantial interest in politics and strong participatory orientations, leaving turnout largely unaffected. These competing perspectives are tested with data from the 1980 National Election Study. In a path model of the closeness-turnout hypothesis perceived closeness in the preelection survey neither encouraged strong interest in the campaign nor contributed directly to participation rates. On the other hand, a model incorporating the assumptions of selective information flow justified the treatment of perceived closeness as the end product of political interest and attentiveness, a factor that did not contribute to turnout independent of its antecedents. The findings challenge the status of perceived closeness as an independent variable and, by implication, the power of election night forecasts to influence turnout rates.

Virtues Become Vices? The Decline of the Textbook Party System

From time to time, the mailbox disgorges glossy travel brochures which beckon me to sample the cuisine of France, drink beer in Germany, eat cheese in Holland, ride a tram to a Swiss mountain top or find the sun on a Portuguese beach. Understandably enough, travel agents do not similarly entice visitors to the United Kingdom with the promise of a rich cuisine or a moderate climate. Rather, along with shopping on Oxford Street, pub crawls and stage plays, the travel agents promote visits to Parliament, the Tower, Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park Corner as major reasons to schedule a British stop on the grand tour. It is certainly difficult to imagine another country drawing tourists on account of its governmental institutions and political system. What sensible travel folder would suggest that an Italian or Spanish vacation would be incomplete without tours of government buildings or landmarks commemorating great political events? What travel agent fails to tout such activities as highlights of a trip to London? The distinctiveness of Britain’s appeal finds eloquent confirmation in the throngs of tourists actually waiting in the rain for tickets to a sitting of Parliament and crowding around the elevated platforms on Speaker’s Corner. For many outsiders, even those who are not professional political scientists, the essence of Britain apparently has much to do with its governmental traditions.

Stratification and Voting Behavior Electoral Cleavage in Britain under the Third Reform Act

Despite agreement on the importance of class in voting behavior, scholars have not integrated research on class-based political behavior with broader theories about the sources of group cohesion in a mass electorate. This article explores the potential for political cohesion among a variety of occupational groups within the British working class. The propensity for collective action in the electoral arena is evaluated in terms of each groups social situation—its differentiation, level of within-group interaction, need for collective effort, and organizational capacity. Using the 1891 population census and general election results from 1885 to 1910, we then observe the relationship between the spatial concentration of each occupational group and the left-wing vote. The results indicate clearly that alternate conceptions of stratification are associated with different directions of class-party relationships and different levels of class-based voting. The results of both correlation and multivariate regression analysis confirm that the level of class voting increased as the definition of “working class” was narrowed to identify groups with a high potential for collective action. As the scope of the independent variable was narrowed, the relationship more closely conformed to that predicted in the literature on class and politics. This suggests the wisdom of Kornhausers admonition to analyze the social basis of voting “within a structure of explicit theory about class relations as dynamic functioning processes.”