Martin Johnson

Public Opinion in the American States: New Perspectives Using National Survey Data

General measures of ideology and partisanship derived from national survey data concatenated to the state level have been extremely important in understanding policy and political processes in the states. However, due to the lack of uniform survey data covering a broad array of survey questions, we know little about how specific state-level opinion relates to specific policies or processes. Using the General Social Survey (GSS) disaggregated to the state level, we develop and rigorously test specific measures of state-level opinion on tolerance, racial integration, abortion, religiosity, homosexuality, feminism, capital punishment, welfare, and the environment. To illustrate the utility of these measures, we compare the explanatory power of each to that of a general ideology measure. We use a simulation to clarify conditions under which a national sample frame can produce representative state samples. We offer these measures to advance the study of the role public opinion plays in state politics and policy. The public opinion-policy linkage is a crucial topic for democratic theorists and has preoccupied students of state government and politics for years. Without survey data at the state level, pioneering studies employed surrogates derived from demographic variables or simu? lations to judge the responsiveness of state policymaking to public prefer? ences (Plotnick and Winters 1985; Weber and Shaffer 1972). Some ingenious studies also explore the causes and consequences of public opinion using national survey data disaggregated to subnational units (Gibson 1989,1992,1995; Miller and Stokes 1963; Norrander 2000). Wright, Erikson, and Mclvers research (1985) significantly advanced our understanding of the state public opinion and policy linkage by pooling 1976 through 1988 CBS/New York Times polls and disaggregating them to the state level to create reliable, stable, and valid measures of state ideology and partisanship (Erikson, Wright, and Mclver 1993). A host of influential studies employ these measures (e.g., Hill and Hinton-Anderson 1995) to illustrate fundamental linkages between general mass political at? titudes and the general choices of state policy makers. Yet, they represent only a first step in gauging the effects of opinion on state policy. The gen? eral nature of the ideology measure developed by Erikson, Wright, and Mclver leaves open many remaining questions about how specific attitudes may influence specific political outcomes and processes in the states.

Contextual data and the study of elections and voting behavior: connecting individuals to environments

Abstract Studies of contextual processes have always involved the possibility that if individuals aggregation into geographic units is not exogenous to their values on the dependent variable, then what appear to be ‘contextual processes’ may be solely due to selection effects. We propose a method to test whether observed contextual effects are real or phantom. The integration of individuals in their neighborhoods is measured by response latency on questions about the neighborhood; if contextual effects are based on what happens to people in their neighborhoods (that is, the apparent effects are not solely because of selection effects), they should be more pronounced among those who are most integrated into their neighborhood. An empirical example illustrates the technique. We propose instrumentation by which electoral studies can test for true contextual effects. The availability of this test should encourage greater emphasis in electoral studies on the search for contextual processes.

Comparison of the Long-Term Risks of Removal and In Situ Management of Contaminated Sediments in the Fox River

The long-term potential risks of environmental dredging vs. in situ contaminated sediment management practices are discussed and compared for the Lower Fox River, Wisconsin. The risks are identified as being largely associated with the residual sediment contamination associated with either approach. The integral of the surface area-weighted average contaminant concentration in surface sediment is proposed as a metric to compare these risks. Capping is shown to exhibit significantly reduced exposure and risk relative to the dredging scenarios, even if potential undetected erosion of 5% of the cap is considered. Even with the improbable event of undetected failure of 25% of the cap, the exposure and risk associated with capping is approximately equal to or below all dredging scenarios. A preference for dredging due to the perception that it eliminates the long-term risk of in situ capping is not supported by this analysis. Although strictly applicable only to the Lower Fox River, the results suggest sitespecific analyses must be conducted to determine which sediment management approaches minimize the potential for long-term exposure and risk.

Application of the NRC Framework for Evaluation of Remedial Actions at a PCB-Contaminated Sediment Site

The National Research Council recently proposed that the framework of the Presidents/Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management be applied to the selection and implementation of remedial approaches at PCB contaminated sediment sites. A key feature of the proposed framework is site-specific evaluation and comparison of the risks posed by various remedial approaches. This approach was employed to evaluate potential remedial approaches to the lower Fox River, Wisconsin. The lower Fox River contains PCBs introduced to the river primarily through recycling of carbonless copy paper. The unique physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the Fox River were identified and incorporated into an assessment of the potential effectiveness and potential risks of various remedial approaches including natural attenuation, capping and dredging. Expertise in a broad range of technical disciplines was required to conduct this evaluation. It was found that the effectiveness of a remedy was directly related to the speed at which surficial sediment average concentrations could be reduced. Capping was found to be the most effective means of rapidly reducing exposure and risk although there remains a residual risk of cap failure and contaminant release far into the future.

Book Review: The Marketplace of Attention: How Audiences Take Shape in a Digital AgeWebsterJames G.The Marketplace of Attention: How Audiences Take Shape in a Digital Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014. 280 pp. ISBN- 9780262027861.

power than the U.S. press; in fact, the opposite is generally true, with French journalism more characterized by the critical clash of ideas (p. 170). It is this greater concern with ideas and ideological diversity on the French side that helps to make room for the utilization of a broader range of frames by the French press as compared with its U.S. counterpart, where an emphasis on personalized, narrative news frequently determines framing. Finally, the book has a strong normative leitmotif that is occasionally made explicit by the author: the desirability of a significant publicly subsidized component of the national media system. The book thus throws down a challenge to those who believe that a liberal market approach to the organization of news media inevitably produces the broadest range of news content. If, as Benson claims with regard to the highprestige national newspapers examined in his study, competition seems to homogenize more than differentiate in terms of content, then a simple reliance on market forces will narrow rather than extend the media’s representation of political and policy debates. Benson is in contrast very positive about the benefits of publicly funded media as being positioned to show more in-depth, reasoned, ideologically diverse, and critical news coverage than their commercial counterparts. In the final section of the book, titled “The Way Forward: Implications for Reform,” it is scarcely surprising therefore that the author’s first recommendation focuses on the need to expand and strengthen public media. Aimed mainly at a readership of graduate students and academic researchers, this book is an excellent combination of theoretical insights, empirical findings, and normative recommendations. It does not just say a lot about the current state of journalism in each country; in comparing and contrasting journalistic output in two highly developed media systems, the book highlights the respective strengths and deficiencies of this output in terms of its contribution to democratic debate. Because of the sheer amount of empirical material presented (frame analysis, content analysis, statistical data), the book is not always an easy read. However, it is certainly an intellectually rewarding one.