Level Of Public Support Research Articles

La donna e mobile - or is she? Voter preferences and public support for the performing arts *

This paper investigates a referendum held in 1994 on the public support of the Zurich Opera House. The estimates demonstrate that well over 85% of the variance in the approval rates across ballot districts can be explained with a few variables characterizing the socio-economic composition of the electorate. Since these variables have been shown to influence the level of public support for the arts in representative democracies as well, our result lends support to the view that in democracies public support for the arts is coupled to the stable preferences of the electorate. This insight may, to some extent, mitigate and qualify existing fears that cultural policy is completely at the mercy of changing government ideologies and interest group influences.

Restructuring the University System: What Level of Public Support?

It seems inevitable that universities in Canada will be increasing their reliance on tuition as a source of income. This paper works out an optimal tuition subsidy formula for a full tuition university system where investments in higher-education are treated by the tax system in the same way as investments in physical capital. The optimal subsidy is quite substantial in some cases. In general, with enlightened tax policy, there is no reason to fear that a full tuition regime will reduce the quality, equity, or accessibility of the university system.

Public Orchestra Funding in Germany - An Empirical Investigation

In this paper, we describe the institutional framework in which heavy subsidization of German classical orchestras takes place and provide figures on the structure and the level of public support. Moreover, we derive and test various hypotheses concerning the political-economic determinants of public orchestra support. We analyze the political support-maximizing calculus of local politicians – the relevant decision-makers for orchestra subsidization in Germany. We find that public funding increases with increasing population; public debt and budget figures exert strong influences on the level of support. In addition, conservative and liberal politicians tend to support classical orchestras more than Social Democratic and Green politicians do.

The sources of police culture: Demographic or environmental variables?

Two hundred and eighty six serving Metropolitan Police officers were surveyed by way of anonymous questionnaire and their views obtained in respect of capital punishment, the right to strike, the right to active political involvement, opinions of levels of public support, and their recent voting habits. The results were then compared between sample groups based on various demographic variables: age, gender, occupational location, rank, familial policing connections, previous occupations, and academic qualifications. It was found that despite apparent variations, there were few statistically significant differences between the sample groups. Overall, it was found that although police were traditionally more likely to vote Conservative, there has been a sharp downturn in this area, and that overall, police attitudes appear to be similar to those of the general public, suggesting that police may be closer to the societal norm than has been opined.

Crisis Perception and Policy Outcomes: Comparison between Environmental and Infrastructure Crises

The publication of \ISilent Spring\N in 1962 heralded the beginning of the modern environmental movement. \IAmerica in Ruins\N, published in 1981, attempted to draw attention to the “infrastructure crisis” but did not generate the same level of public support. This paper compares and contrasts the issues presented in these two books and reviews their respective roles in publicizing issues related to the natural and built environments. The public perception of crisis and the related public policies are also explored in the context of publications and legislation related to \ISilent Spring\N and \IAmerica in Ruins\N. A discussion of the differences and similarities focuses on the importance of future directions rather than addressing the question, “was there an infrastructure crisis?” Issues posed for future investigation include establishing priorities between increased financing and improving the use of existing resources and examining the link between the natural and built environments as it relates to sustainability. Lessons that may be derived from an analysis of the environmental and infrastructure crises include recognizing the importance of broad-based support and relating the issues to the public’s fear for personal health and safety.

Euthanasia: Should the Public Decide?-Reply

In Reply. —Dr Shertz raises several important concerns about our article: (1) Is public opinion likely to influence future public policy on the controversial question of euthanasia? (2) In our society, is this appropriate? (3) Does the public understand the consequences of its preferences? (4) Did respondents understand the specific differences among the policy choices offered to them? Regarding the first issue, there exists a good deal of empirical research on this question. The results show that, under certain circumstances, public policy decisions are causally related to the direction of public opinion. 1-3 This occurs when (1) the issue is a highly salient one to Americans; (2) high levels of public support for particular policy are sustained over a number of years; and (3) there are no strong institutional barriers to a policy's implementation. The movement to legalize euthanasia meets all three of these criteria. As presented in our article,

Public Opinion on Investigative Reporting in the 1980s

This study compares findings of four telephone surveys on perceived public importance of investigative reporting and the acceptability of different reporting methods—a 1980 Chicago study, a 1981 national Gallup survey, a 1984–1985 national poll and a 1989 statewide Indiana poll. Higher levels of public support were found in Chicago, a city with a tradition of investigative reporting, than nationally or in Indiana. Those who had an interest in the topic under journalistic investigation also expressed higher interest. Yet these studies, collectively, find approval of investigative techniques is not predicted by age, race, gender, education, income, political party, newspaper or television viewing habits, or by beliefs in the importance of keeping up with the news or exposing public problems. These studies do suggest that a particular community is an important predictor of public opinion about investigative reporting.

Public Opinion on Alcohol Policies

We conducted a survey of a probability sample of adult residents in the State of Michigan, assessed public support for various alcohol and drinking-driving policy changes, examined how opinions on various policies clustered, and compared Michigan results with national surveys on these issues. Results showed high levels of public support for raising alcohol excise taxes (82%), prohibiting concurrent sales of alcohol and gasoline (74%), administratively suspending drivers licenses of those over the legal alcohol limit (67%), limiting the numbers of alcohol outlets via government regulation (63%), and lowering the legal alcohol limit for drivers to .05 g/dl (55%). Support for these policies was found across all income and education categories, but was significantly lower among frequent heavy drinkers. Policies with lower levels of public support include liability of commercial servers and social hosts, and stricter limits on hours of alcohol sales. Results are clearly relevant to current policy debates, and point to the need for further research on how opinions concerning alcohol policies are interrelated.

The Cost of Vigilance in Israel: Linking the Economic and Social Costs of Defense

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent of the gun-butter tradeoff in Israel and to assess the level of public support for such a tradeoff. It was found that the extent of the gun-butter tradeoff is very considerable, both in terms of direct cuts in social and welfare spending and the less direct losses in opportunity costs. Because of the 'self-defense' nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict, it has often been argued that Israeli public support for such a tradeoff is continuously high. However, an analysis of the demands articulated by Israeli protest movements reveals that there are important limitations on the level and direction of popular support for the tradeoff. First, social protest groups have increasingly criticized the tradeoff and demanded a reallocation of resources to reflect more closely the social rather than the military need of the country. Second, the Peace Movement groups have undermined the 'package deal' perception of the defense budget, introducing the notion that part of the defense spending, especially on the West Bank, is somewhat of a 'colonial' burden rather than a legimate 'self-defense' expenditure.

Family experience and public support of the death penalty.

Integration of data on the characteristics of death penalty supporters with data on violence within the family suggests that experience with violence in the family, and the meaning and moral evaluation of punishment and violence learned thereby, lead to support for the death penalty. This paper concludes that the high level of public support for the death penalty may be accounted for in part by the high level of violence within the family and by parental use of retributive physical punishment.