Public Opinion in Alabama
Looking Beyond the Stereotypes- Authors:
- |
- Publisher:
- 2010
Summary
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.
Search publication
Bibliographic data
- Copyright year
- 2010
- ISBN-Print
- 978-0-7391-4541-8
- ISBN-Online
- 978-0-7391-4543-2
- Publisher
- Lexington, Lanham
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 102
- Product type
- Book Titles
Table of contents
- Contents No access
- Tables No access
- Contradictory Models of Political Attitudes No access
- How Alabamians View Their Public Officials No access
- Organization of the Book No access
- Moderate Support for Rewriting the AlabamaState Constitution No access
- Stereotypes of Who Supports and OpposesConstitutional Revision No access
- Actual Influences on Attitudes aboutConstitutional Revision No access
- Assessing the Simultaneous Effects ofthe Explanatory Items: The Centrality of theGovernmental Activism Dimension No access
- Attitudes about Home Rule No access
- Public Opinion about Constitutional Reform No access
- Somewhat Contradictory Positions on Tax Issues No access
- How Alabamians Divide on Tax Burden and Tax Policy:Support for the Anti-Tax Economic Stress Model No access
- The Complex Cleavages over Governor Riley’sTax Referendum No access
- Alabamians’ Evident Desire for State Services No access
- How Alabamians Divide on Government Services:The Prevalence of the Standard Ideological Model No access
- The Contradictory Implications of Alabamians’Views about the Role of Government No access
- Alabamians’ Views on Public Education:Concerns about Both Quality and Traditional Values No access
- How Alabamians Divide on Education:Different Dynamics for Different Issues No access
- Alabamians’ Views about Health Care:Is the Glass Partially Empty or Partially Full? No access
- How Alabamians’ Divide on Health Care:Medical Problems over Ideology No access
- The Conundrum about Education andHealth Care in Alabama No access
- Alabamians’ Views on Religion and Politics:Quite Conservative but with a Couple of Caveats No access
- How Alabamians Divide on the Role of Religion inPublic Life: Clearly a Cultural Issue No access
- A Resistance to OverpoliticizingSome Religious Issues? No access
- Religion and Political Life in Alabama No access
- Alabamians’ Views about Crime:Significant but Not Overwhelming Concern No access
- How Alabamians Divide on Crime: An Absence ofSignificant Relationships No access
- Strong Concern over Illegal Immigration No access
- Why Alabamians Differ about Illegal Immigration:General Support for the Cultural IssuesIdeological Model No access
- Immigration and Crime as Issues in Alabama No access
- What Do Alabamians Want? No access
- The Similar Dynamics in U.S. Public Opinion No access
- Public Opinion and the Polarization of U.S. Politics No access
- Index No access Pages 99 - 100
- About the Authors No access Pages 101 - 102
