24 research outputs found
Revolutionary Conceptions: Women, Fertility, & Family Limitation in America, 1760–1820.
A Multi-Criteria Pen for Drawing Fair Districts: When Democratic and Demographic Fairness Matter
The United States: the Past — Moving from Diversity to Uniform Single-Member Districts
Capitol Mobility: Madisonian Representation and the Location and Relocation of Capitals in the United States
Opinion Backlash and Public Attitudes: Are Political Advances in Gay Rights Counterproductive?
One long-recognized consequence of the tension between popular sovereignty and democratic values like liberty and equality is public opinion backlash, which occurs when individuals recoil in response to some salient event. For decades, scholars have suggested that opinion backlash impedes policy gains by marginalized groups. Public opinion research, however, suggests that widespread attitude change that backlash proponents theorize is likely to be rare. Examining backlash against gays and lesbians using a series of online and natural experiments about marriage equality, and large-sample survey data, we find no evidence of opinion backlash among the general public, by members of groups predisposed to dislike gays and lesbians, or from those with psychological traits that may predispose them to lash back. The important implication is that groups pursuing rights should not be dissuaded by threats of backlash that will set their movement back in the court of public opinion