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Full Description
The attitudes of individual citizens play a central role in a democracy. In the United States today, the two major parties are each associated with a broad set of policy positions representing the conservative and liberal political ideologies. The two major parties are becoming increasingly polarized on these ideologies between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. This book provides an in-depth examination of public opinion in a single American state, Alabama, to see whether the public opinion of general citizens follows this stereotype of ideological and partisan polarization. Alabama public opinion is analyzed on a fairly wide range of issues, including the quality of public officials, constitutional reform, the role of government in terms of taxes and overall spending, education, health care, religion in public life, crime, and immigration. Alabama is generally perceived as staunchly conservative politically and as a reliably 'red' Republican state in national elections. Yet, public opinion in Alabama is considerably more nuanced and complex than this stereotype in two distinct aspects. First, Alabamians are certainly conservative on many issues, but they are also liberal on a significant number of others. Second, the issue positions of the state's citizens are shaped by three different dynamics in terms of what factors influence specific attitudes. Furthermore a brief analysis of public opinion in the entire United States finds similar patterns. Thus, the current polarization in party politics does not necessarily reflect public opinion in its entirety, suggesting a need to transcend the competing conservative and liberal orthodoxies.
Contents
Part 1 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Public Opinion and Politics Chapter 3 Contradictory Models of Political Attitudes Chapter 4 How Alabamians View Their Public Officials Chapter 5 Organization of the Book Part 6 Chapter 2 Chapter 7 Support for Constitutional Reform Chapter 8 Moderate Support for Rewriting the Alabama State Constitution Chapter 9 Stereotypes of Who Supports and Opposes Constitutional Revision Chapter 10 Actual Influences on Attitudes about Constitutional Revision Chapter 11 Assessing the Simultaneous Effects of the Explanatory Items: The Centrality of the Government Activism Dimension Chapter 12 Attitudes about Home Rule Chapter 13 Public Opinion about Constitutional Reform Part 14 Chapter 3 Chapter 15 Views about the Role of Government Chapter 16 Somewhat Contradictory Positions on Tax Issues Chapter 17 How Alabamians Divide on Tax Burden and Tax Policy: Support for the Anti-Tax Economic Stress Model Chapter 18 The Complex Cleavages over Governor Riley's Tax Referendum Chapter 19 Alabamians' Evident Desire for Public Services Chapter 20 How Alabamians Divide on Government Services: The Prevalence of the Standard Ideological Model Chapter 21 The Contradictory Implications of Alabamians' Views about Public Services Part 22 Chapter 4 Chapter 23 More Specific Views about Social Services Chapter 24 Alabamians' Views on Public Education: Concerns about Both Quality and Traditional Values Chapter 25 How Alabamians Divide on Education: Different Dynamics for Different Issues Chapter 26 Alabamians' Views about Health Care: Is the Glass Partially Empty or Partially Full? Chapter 27 How Alabamians' Divide on Health Care: Medical Problems over Ideology Chapter 28 The Conundrum about Education and Health Care in Alabama Part 29 Chapter 5 Chapter 30 Religion and Public Life Chapter 31 Alabamians Views on Religion and Politics: Quite Conservative But with a Couple of Caveats Chapter 32 How Alabamians Divide on the Role of Religion in Public Life: Clearly a Cultural Issue Chapter 33 A Resistance to Over-Politicizing Some Religious Issues? Chapter 34 Religion and Political Life in Alabama Part 35 Chapter 6 Chapter 36 Views about Crime and Immigration Chapter 37 Alabamians' Views about Crime: Significant But Not Overwhelming Concern Chapter 38 How Alabamians Divide on Crime: An Absence of Significant Relationships Chapter 39 Strong Concern over Illegal Immigration Chapter 40 Why Alabamians Differ about Illegal Immigration: General Support for the Cultural Issues Ideological Model Chapter 41 Immigration and Crime as Issues in Alabama Part 42 Chapter 7 Chapter 43 Public Opinion in Alabama and the United States: Defying the Stereotypes Chapter 44 What Do Alabamians Want? Chapter 45 The Similar Dynamics in U.S. Public Opinion Chapter 46 Public Opinion and the Polarization of U.S. Politics Chapter 47 About the Authors
