The US is experiencing extreme social and political polarization not seen since the Civil War. This divisiveness is causing civil unrest and governmental dysfunction which threatens the stability of the nation. Four major causes of the current state are party realignment, the deregulation of news broadcasting, algorithmic personalization of…

Merit pay initiatives transparently alter the teaching profession and goings-on within classrooms, and thereby promise to stoke the self-interests of the two most prominent stakeholders in public education: teachers and parents. This memo summarizes the authors' ongoing efforts to empirically evaluate the extent to which public debates about merit…

Time of final vote decision in a national presidential election campaign was explored as the dependent variable in a media effects study conducted earlier as part of the National Election Study of 1980. Political identity, a new measure of partisanship and independence known as the Partisan Supporter Typology, was used as an important contingent…

While the founders of the penny press did not set out to establish a truer form of journalism, they did popularize both low prices for newspapers and newspaper economics based on sales instead of political party backing. The history of "The Sun,""The Herald," and "The Tribune" disprove the idea (advanced by journalism…

After seeing a keen interest stimulated by a residential course of political training, the executive of the Youth Movement (Democrazia Cristiana) in the province of Reggio Emilia (Italy) decided to abandon the traditional training methodology, which consisted of one or two residential courses evey year on current political issues on the party's…

Based on a panel study of 800 voters in Dearborn, Michigan, this report examines the impact of political attitudes on the party system and on the presidential elections of 1972 and 1976. The central thesis is that public opinion can be classified into two clusters of attitudes, one which disrupts and the other which reinforces partisan voting. The…

Women have been believed to be peacemakers throughout the centuries. Whether this is biologically determined or a socially structured has been a matter of controversy. This study examined gender differences and the social dynamics of peace movement participation. Subjects (N=272) were members of a local nuclear freeze campaign in 1984.…

Persuasive mass communication is believed to be more likely to reinforce existing opinions than to change them. This study set out to test this hypothesis in the political area by doing the following: isolating attitudinal patterns in a sample of voters; determining if characteristics of the questionnaire statements were systematically related to…

Undertaken in conjunction with the 1976 presidential election, this study examined perceptions of Gerald R. Ford against conceptualizations of the ideal political candidate. Questionnaires were administered to 321 undergraduates (both Republicans and Democrats) in order to measure perceived credibility and homophily of the ideal candidate and of…

This paper argues that in recent years the number of aliens being denied nonimmigrant visas to the United States because of their liberal political views has increased. The roles of each of the branches of government in the procedure of denying visas are reviewed. The number of visa denials in the lower courts has risen dramatically since 1980,…

A study examined the conserving tendencies of the established political party press during the early stages of the antislavery movement. Eighteen partisan newspapers--from both northern and southern states--were examined for their coverage of the July 30, 1836, mob violence against James G. Birney and his Cincinnati "Philanthropist," and…

A study examined the treatment and portrayal of political parties on Soviet and American television. The content of six newscasts of "World News Tonight" and "Vremya" during June of 1984 were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The overall results suggest that 15 stories (24% of the total allotted time) pertaining…

Patterned after a 1976 study, a study examined voters' decision making during the 1980 campaign for the presidency of the United States. Data from a survey of 183 registered voters indicated that partisan voters were likely to be precommitted to a candidate choice and thus relatively immune to mass mediated campaign effects. However, those voters…

Data from a series of surveys of voters in the Midwest, conducted during the 1976 presidential election campaign, were used to explore the effects of the campaign in relation to when people decided for whom to vote. A second purpose was to consider the adequacy of the traditional dichotomous model of voters: people who make up their minds early…

A secondary analysis of the "1987 Australian Election Study" examined differences in levels of partisanship, political interest, campaign media use, and the importance voters attach to media use, for voters who make up their minds during and before the campaign. Results suggest that voters who make their choice during the campaign are…