321 research outputs found
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Public Schools and the American Dream
African and African American StudiesGovernmen
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Should the Mass Public Follow Elite Opinion? It Depends …
John Zaller’s finding that members of the public usually follow elites’ cues may seem normatively disturbing. If true, it might be taken to obviate the need for democracy or to show that elites are manipulating the public.
However, as long as the public sometimes fails to follow elites, we can judge cases of public followership according to independent criteria, such as whether the public’s occasional rebellions against elite opinion further liberal-democratic or utilitarian purposes. A review of some prominent cases of mass followership of and mass divergence from elite opinion suggests that public opinion that is independent of elite leadership is neither an unmitigated good nor an unmitigated problem for a well-ordered polity.African and African American Studie
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The Political Contingency of Public Opinion, or What Shall We Make of the Declining Faith of Middle-Class African Americans?
African and African American StudiesGovernmen
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Looking Ahead: Racial Trends in the United States
African and African American StudiesGovernmen
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If Democracies Need Informed Voters, How Can They Thrive While Expanding Enfranchisement?
Three uncontroversial points sum to a paradox: 1) Almost every democratic theorist or democratic political actor sees an informed electorate as essential to good democratic practice. Citizens need to know who or what they are choosing and why – hence urgent calls for expansive and publicly funded education, and rights to free speech, assembly, press, and movement. 2) In most if not all democratic polities, the proportion of the population granted the suffrage has consistently expanded, and seldom contracted, over the past two centuries. Most observers, and I, agree that expanding enfranchisement makes a state more democratic. 3) Most expansions of the suffrage bring in, on average, people who are less politically informed or less broadly educated than those already eligible to vote. Putting these three uncontroversial points together leads to the conclusion that as democracies become more democratic, their decision-making processes become of lower quality in terms of cognitive processing of issues and candidate choice. The paradox is both historical – why have democracies expanded the franchise to include relatively ignorant voters? – and normative – why should democracies expand the franchise to include relatively ignorant voters? The article addresses both questions. First, I review the historical trajectory of democratization in the United States (although the argument is not specific to that country). I then describe plausible empirical explanations for the paradox: voters are not really that ignorant; the United States is not and never has been really a democracy; and institutions or electoral rules have been developed to substitute for voters’ knowledge. I also analyze plausible normative explanations for the paradox: democracy does not, or does not primarily, need cognitively sophisticated citizens; and democracy offers benefits that outweigh the deficits of citizens’ lack of knowledge. I offer a few reflections on both sets of explanations, but cannot genuinely dissolve the paradox.Governmen
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Race, Class, and American Polarities
African and African American StudiesGovernmen
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Ambivalence About Equality in the United States or, Did Tocqueville Get it Wrong and Why Does that Matter?
Alexis de Tocqueville believed that “democratic peoples’... passion for equality is ardent, insatiable, eternal, and invincible.” This article examines whether and under what conditions residents of the United States demonstrate such a commitment to equality. I show that at many points in history, Americans have indeed chosen to move toward greater justice and less oppression; however, there are clear limits to their passion for equality. White Americans endorse less social, political, and economic equality than do African Americans, but even the latter often resist equality for groups that they perceive to be threats, or for behaviors that threaten strong social or moral norms. The article discusses implications for political activists of these patterns of support for and resistance to greater equality, and suggests strategies for overcoming oppression and promoting justice.African and African American StudiesGovernmen
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Making White Americans and Excluding Nonwhite Americans Through Immigration Laws
African and African American StudiesGovernmen
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Practical Politics and Voice and Equality
African and African American StudiesGovernmen
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