Statehouse Democracy: Public Opinion and Policy in the American StatesThe importance of public opinion in the determination of public policy is the subject of considerable debate. Professors Erikson, Wright, and McIver make the argument that state policies are highly responsive to public opinion, and they show how the institutions of state politics work to achieve this high level of responsiveness. They analyze state policies from the 1930s to the present, drawing from and contributing to major lines of research on American politics. Their conclusions are applied to central questions of democratic theory, and affirm the robust character of state institutions. |
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activists Adjusted R² Adults aggregate American Political analysis candidates CBS/NYT Chapter composite conservatism conservative contemporary cultural component Democratic and Republican Democratic elite Democratic legislative strength Democratic Party demographic component differences Downsian dummy variables effects Elazar's electoral elites electorate's equation estimates exit poll Figure Gallup Gallup polls gubernatorial ideological positions ideological preferences ideology and partisanship income independent variables individual individual-level individualistic legislative liberalism legislature liberal policies mean ideology Nevada opinion liberalism opinion-policy partisan partisanship and ideology party control party elite ideology party elite liberalism party identification party ideology party midpoint party positions policy liberalism political culture Political Science postwar predictor presidential vote prewar probit public opinion reflect relationship relative reliability represent representation Republican elites Republican parties responses result sample scatterplot scores short-term forces shows Significant at 05 socioeconomic variables South spending standard deviation standard error state-level state's statistical subculture Table tion traditionalistic U.S. Senate variance voters
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Page 8 - The preparation and publication of the study and the benefits resulting from its publication would not have been possible without the financial support of the National Endowment for the Arts.