Michigan State University
Department of Political Science
PLS 828, Fall 2009

PUBLIC OPINION AND THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

"To speak with precision of public opinion is a task
not unlike coming to grips with the Holy Ghost." (V. O. Key)

WEEKLY TOPICS AND READINGS

Click on the dates to see the reading assignments for each week.

• September 14: Introduction to the Class
• Stimson, James A. (2004) Tides of Consent: How Public Opinion Shapes American Politics.
• Verba, Sidney. (1996) "The Citizen Respondent: Sample Surveys and American Democracy."
• McCombs, Maxwell and Jian-Hua Zhu. (1995) \Capacity, Diversity, and Volatility of the Public Agenda: Trends from 1954 to 1994."
• Lax, Jeffrey R. and Justin H. Phillips. (2009) "How Should We Estimate Public Opinion in The States?"

• September 21: Public Opinion and the Political System
• Converse, Philip E. (1987) "Changing Conceptions of Public Opinion in the Political Process." (Skim)
• Beniger, James R. (1987) "Toward a New Paradigm: The Half-Century Flirtation with Mass Society." (Skim)
• Back, Kurt W. (1988) "Metaphors for Public Opinion in Literature." (Skim)
• Hamill, Ruth; Milton Lodge; Frederick Blake. (1985) "The Breadth, Depth, and Utility of Class, Partisan, and Ideological Schemata."
• Zaller, John and Stanley Feldman. (1992) "A Simple Theory of the Survey Response: Answering Questions Versus Revealing Preferences."
• Miller, Joanne M. and David A. M. Peterson. (2004) "Theoretical and Empirical Implications of Attitude Strength."

• September 28: Basic Concepts and Political Culture, I
• Wildavsky, Aaron. (1987) "Choosing Preferences by Constructing Institutions: A Cultural Theory of Preference Formation."
• Axelrod, Robert. (1986) "An Evolutionary Approach to Norms."
• Erikson, Robert S.; John P. McIver; Gerald C. Wright, Jr. (1987) "State Political Culture and Public Opinion."
• Prothro, James W. and Charles M. Grigg. (1960) "Fundamental Principles of Democracy: Bases of Agreement and Disagreement."
• McClosky, Herbert. (1964) "Consensus and Ideology in American Politics."
• Feldman, Stanley. (1988) "Structure and Consistency in Public Opinion: The Role of Core Beliefs and Values."
• Putnam, Robert D. (1995) "Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America." or "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital."
• Brehm, John and Wendy Rahn. (1997) "Individual-Level Evidence for the Causes and Consequences of Social Capital."
• Hill, Kim Quaile and Tetsuya Matsubayashi. (2005) "Civic Engagement and Mass-Elite Policy Agenda Agreement in American Communities."
• Keele, Luke. (2007) "Social Capital and the Dynamics of Trust in Government."
• Inglehart, Ronald. (1988) "The Renaissance of Political Culture."
• Abramson, Paul R. and Ronald Inglehart. (1992) "Generational Replacement and Value Change in Eight West European Societies."
• Davis, Darren W.; Kathleen M. Dowley; Brian D. Silver. (1999) "Postmaterialism in World Societies: Is it Really a Value Dimension?"
• Inglehart, Ronald and Paul R. Abramson. (1999) "Measuring Postmaterialism."
• Davis, Darren W. and Christian Davenport. (1999) "Assessing the Validity of the Post-materialism Index."
• Clarke, Harold D.; Allen Kornberg; Chris McIntyre; Petra Bauer-Kaase; Max Kaase. (1999) "The Effect of Economic Priorities on the Measurement of Value Change: New Experimental Evidence."

• October 5: Political Culture
• (All readings from September 28)
• Fiorina, Morris P.; Samuel J. Abrams; Jeremy C. Pope. (2006) Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (Second Edition).
• Abramowitz, Alan I. and Kyle L. Saunders. (2008) "Is Polarization a Myth?"
• Fiorina, Morris P.; Samuel A. Abrams; Jeremy C. Pope. (2008) "Polarization in the American Public: Misconceptions and Misreadings."
• Huddy, Leonie and Nadia Khatib. (2007) "American Patriotism, National Identity, and Political Involvement."
• Schildkraut, Deborah J. (2007) "Defning American Identity in the Twenty-First Century: How Much 'There' is There?"
• Barker, David C.; Jon Hurwitz; Traci L. Nelson. (2008) "Of Crusades and Culture Wars: 'Messianic' Militarism and Political Conflict in the United States."

• October 12: Sources of Issue Attitudes
• Sears, David O. and Carolyn L. Funk. (1990) "Self-Interest in Americans' Political Opinions."
• Kuklinski, James H.; Daniel S. Metlay; W. D. Kay. (1982) "Citizen Knowledge and Choices on the Complex Issue of Nuclear Energy."
• Lau, Richard R. and Caroline Heldman. (2009) "Self-Interest, Symbolic Attitudes, and Support for Public Policy: A Multilevel Analysis." Political Psychology 30: 513-537.
• Huckfeldt, Robert; Jeffrey Levine; William Morgan; John Sprague. (1999) "Accessibility and the Political Utility of Partisan and Ideological Orientations."
• Sniderman, Paul R. and Richard Brody. (1977) "Coping: The Ethic of Self-Reliance."
• Mutz, Diana C. (1992) "Mass Media and the Depoliticization of Personal Experience."
• Feldman, Stanley and John Zaller, (1992) "The Political Culture of Ambivalence: Ide- ological Responses to the Welfare State."
• Alvarez, R. Michael and John Brehm. (1995) "American Ambivalence Towards Abortion Policy: Development of a Heteroskedastic Probit Model of Competing Values."
• Alvarez, R. Michael and John Brehm. (1997) "Are Americans Ambivalent Toward Racial Policies?"
• Goren, Paul. (2005) "Party Identification and Core Political Attitudes."
• Jacoby, William G. (2006) "Value Choices and American Public Opinion."
• Rudolph, Thomas J. (2003) "Who's Responsible for the Economy? The Formation and Consequences of Responsibility Attributions."
• De Boef, Suzanna and Paul M. Kellstedt. (2004) "The Political (and Economic) Origins of Consumer Confidence."

• October 26: Issue Attitudes, Public Opinion on Welfare and on Foreign Policy
• Jacoby, William G. (1994) "Public Attitudes Toward Government Spending."
• Gilens, Martin. (1999) Why Americans Hate Welfare, Chapters 1 through 4.
• Feldman, Stanley and Marco Steenbergen. (2001) "The Humanitarian Foundation of Public Support for Social Welfare."
• Berinsky, Adam J. (2002) "Silent Voices: Social Welfare Policy Opinions and Political Inequality in America."
• Federico, Christopher M. (2004) "When Do Welfare Attitudes Become Racialized? The Paradoxical Effects of Education."
• Schneider, Saundra K. and William G. Jacoby. (2005) "Elite Discourse and American Public Opinion: The Case of Welfare Spending."
• Hurwitz, Jon and Mark Peey. (1987) "How are Foreign Policy Attitudes Structured?"
• Baum, Matthew A. (2002) "Sex, Lies, and War: How Soft News Brings Foreign Policy to the Attentive Public."
• Todorov, Alexander and Anesu N. Mandisodza. (2004) "Public Opinion on Foreign Policy: The Multilateral Public that Perceives Itself as Unilateral."
• Huddy, Leonie; Stanley Feldman; Charles Taber; Gallya Lahav. (2005) "Threat, Anxiety, and Support of Antiterrorism Policies."
• Berinsky, Adam J. (2007) "Assuming the Costs of War: Events, Elites, and American Public Support for Military Conflict."

• November 2: Ideology and Related Topics, I
• Converse, Philip E. (1964) "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics."
• Luskin, Robert C. (1987) "Measuring Political Sophistication."
• Goren, Paul. (2004) "Political Sophistication and Policy Reasoning: A Reconsideration."
• Boudreau, Cheryl. (2009) "Closing the Gap: When Do Cues Eliminate Differences between Sophisticated and Unsophisticated Citizens?"
• Nie, Norman H. and Kristi Anderson. (1974) "Mass Belief Systems Revisited: Political Change and Attitude Structure."
• Sullivan, John L.; James E. Piereson; George E. Marcus. (1978) "Ideological Constraint in the Mass Public: A Methodological Critique and Some New Findings."
• Nie, Norman H. and James N. Rabjohn. (1979) "Revisiting Mass Belief Systems Re- visited: Or, Doing Research is Like Watching a Tennis Match."
• Wyckoff, Mikel L. (1987) "Measures of Attitudinal Consistency as Indicators of Ideo- logical Sophistication: A Reliability and Validity Assessment."
• Ansolabehere, Stephen; Jonathan Rodden; James M Snyder Jr. (2008) "The Strength of Issues: Using Multiple Measures to Gauge Preference Stability, Ideological Constraint, and Issue Voting."
• Conover, Pamela J. and Stanley Feldman. (1984) "How People Organize the Political World: A Schematic Model."
• Peffley, Mark A. and Jon Hurwitz. (1985) "A Hierarchical Model of Attitude Constraint."

• November 9: Ideology and Related Topics, II
• Smith, Eric R. A. N. (1980) "The Levels of Conceptualization: False Measures of Ideological Sophistication."
• Hagner, Paul and John C. Pierce. (1982) "Correlative Characteristics of the Levels of Conceptualization."
• Jacoby, William G. (1995) "The Structure of Ideological Thinking in the American Electorate."
• Zumbrunnen, John and Amy Gangl. (2008) "Conflict, Fusion, or Coexistence? The Complexity of Contemporary American Conservatism."
• Bafumi, Joseph and Robert Y. Shapiro. (2009) "A New Partisan Voter."
• Converse, Philip E. (1970) "Attitudes and Nonattitudes: Continuation of a Dialogue."
• Achen, Christopher. (1975) "Mass Political Attitudes and the Survey Response."
• Converse, Philip E. and Gregory B. Markus. (1979) "Plus ca Change ... The New CPS Election Study Panel."
• Norpoth Helmut and Milton Lodge. (1985) "The Difference Between Attitudes and Nonattitudes in the Mass Public. Just Measurements?"
• Krosnick, Jon A. (1991) "The Stability of Political Preferences: Comparisons of Symbolic and Nonsymbolic Attitudes."
• Hill, Jennifer L. and Hanspeter Kriesl. (2001) "An Extension and Test of Converse's 'Black and White' Model of Response Stability."

• November 16: Political Knowledge, Attitude Stability, and Movement in Public Opinion
• Mondak, Jeffery J. (2001) "Developing Valid Knowledge Scales."
• Gilens, Martin. (2001) "Political Ignorance and Collective Policy Preferences."
• Sturgis, Patrick; Nick Allum; Patten Smith. (2008) "An Experiment on the Measurement of Political Knowledge in Surveys."
• Prior, Markus and Arthur Lupia. (2008) "Money, Time, and Political Knowledge: Distinguishing Quick Recall and Political Learning Skills."
• Gibson, James L. and Gregory A. Caldeira. (2009) "Knowing the Supreme Court? A Reconsideration of Public Ignorance of the High Court."
• Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth. (1974) "The Spiral of Silence: A Theory of Public Opinion."
• Page, Benjamin I.; Robert Y. Shapiro; Glenn R. Dempsey. (1987) "What Moves Public Opinion?"
• Zaller, John. (1991) "Information, Values, and Opinion."
• Glynn, Carroll J.; Andrew F. Hayes; James Shanahan. (1997) "Perceived Support for One's Opinions and Willingness to Speak Out: A Meta-analysis of Survey Studies on the 'Spiral of Silence'."
• Carmines, Edward G. and James A. Stimson. (1986) "On the Structure and Sequence of Issue Evolution."
• Paine, Scott C. (1989) "Persuasion, Manipulation, and Dimension."
• Adams, Greg D. (1997) "Abortion: Evidence of Issue Evolution."
• Barabas, Jason. (2006) "Rational Exuberance: The Stock Market and Public Support for Social Security Privatization."

• November 23: Mass Media and Public Opinion, I
• Gilens, Martin. (1999) Why Americans Hate Welfare, Chapters 5 and 6.
• Prior, Markus. (2005) "News vs. Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in Political Knowledge and Turnout."
• Jerit, Jennifer; Jason Barabas; Toby Bolsen. (2006) "Citizens, Knowledge, and the Information Environment."
• Barabas, Jason and Jennifer Jerit. (2009) "Estimating the Causal Effects of Media Coverage on Policy-Specific Knowledge."
• Jerit, Jennifer. (2009) "Understanding the Knowledge Gap: The Role of Experts and Journalists."
• Entman, Robert M. (1989) "How the Media Affects What People Think: An Information Processing Approach.
• Barker, David and Kathleen Knight. (2000) "Political Talk Radio and Public Opinion."
• Groeling, Tim and Matthew A. Baum. (2008) "Crossing the Water's Edge: Elite Rhetoric, Media Coverage, and the Rally-Round-the-Flag Phenomenon."
• Baum, Matthew A. and Tim Groeling. (2009) "Shot by the Messenger: Partisan Cues and Public Opinion Regarding National Security and War."

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