Public Opinion and the Test Ban Treaty

Abstract

It has become a truism that the general public is not as concerned with foreign relations as much as it is with domestic issues.1 The cost of living, civil rights, law and order, taxes, labor relations, and education affect most citizens more directly and immediately than international relations. The public consequently exhibits greater fluctuation, less intensity, and less saliency in foreign policy issues which often seem remote from everyday life.2 While officials court citizens on both national and international issues, leaders tend to be more sensitive to constituency opinions on domestic questions than on foreign policy matters because voters judge the performance of officials on their domestic record except in times of an acute national crisis. James Rosenau suggests that the mass public usually becomes interested in foreign policy only in periods of acute peace-or-war crises, and not always then.3 Issues relating to war and peace do not fall into this analysis and are analogous to the issue of a dynamic economy or a recession.