The "More for Less" Paradox: Public Attitudes on Taxing and Spending

Using a statewide random sample of over 900 respondents, attitudestoward taxing and spending are examined in order to try to explainthe seeming paradox of a public that wants more spending butless taxation. We investigate the possibility that the publicwhich wants more spending is willing to pay for it by meansother than taxes, such as through reallocation or increasednontax revenue. Moderate support for this expectation is found.Overall, the desire fora "free lunch" is not as widespread asa simple comparison of taxing and spending preferences suggests.     

"Little" and "Big" Pictures in Our Heads: Race, Local Context, and Innumeracy About Racial Groups in the United States

Americans do not know what percentage of the nation's residentsare whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians.Using the 2000 General Social Survey, I find that respondentsof all races underestimate the percentages of whites and overestimatethe percentages of racial/ethnic minority groups and multiracialAmericans in the United States; however, they perceive theirlocal communities quite differently. As a first step towardunderstanding this discrepancy, I test whether individuals’local surroundings serve as a source of information for theirpictures of the United States. I examine the relationship between"objective" data and respondents’ subjective perceptionsof where they live, and compare their respective effects onAmericans’ perceptions of the nation. Multivariate multilevelanalyses show that respondents’ perceptions of differentracial group sizes in their communities are the strongest predictorsof innumeracy at the national level, while "objective" racialcontext measured at the local level has less of an effect. Thesefindings have important implications for research on racialcontext, which assumes that census numbers for respondents’locales are good proxies for their perceptions of the size ofracial/ethnic groups in their communities. Furthermore, thesefindings suggest that scholars need to start thinking aboutwhy whites and non-whites have similar "big pictures" of thenation, why their "little pictures" vary a great deal, and whythe motivations for over- and underestimation may differ byracial/ethnic group.     

Sophistication and the Antecedents of Whites' Racial Policy Attitudes: Racism, Ideology, and Affirmative Action in America

A number of researchers have argued that the effects of prejudiceon the racial policy attitudes and general political beliefsof white Americans may be restricted to the poorly educatedand politically unsophisticated. In contrast, rather than beingmotivated by prejudice, the racial policy attitudes and ideologicalvalues of the politically sophisticated white Americans shouldbe more firmly informed and motivated by the tolerant valuesat the heart of American political culture. These values includesuch things as individualism, notions of fair play, and devotionto the principle of equality of opportunity. We tested thishypothesis using white respondents from the 1986 and 1992 NationalElection Studies. Our evidence generally indicated that racialpolicy attitudes and political ideology were more powerfullyassociated with ideologies of racial dominance and superiorityamong politically sophisticated white Americans than among politicalunsophisticated white Americans. Moreover, even among the sophisticated,we found that various forms of egalitarianism predicted supportfor—affirmative action and that support for equal opportunityis not uniformly distributed across the political spectrum.     

Alcohol Use Among Black and White Adolescents Exploring the Influence of Interracial Friendship,the Racial Composition of Peer Groups,and Communities

Black adolescents use less alcohol, on average, than white adolescents. Prior research has struggled to explain the disparity in alcohol use between blacks and whites but not for a lack of potential mediating mechanisms. The current study draws on differential association theory and two waves of panel data (n = 1,016) to examine the influence of interracial friendship, the racial composition of peer groups, and communities on black–white differences in alcohol use. Findings indicate that (1) the racial composition of peer groups and communities influence changes in alcohol use, and (2) racial segregation contributes to racial disparities in alcohol use while interracial friendship reduces these disparities. Results suggest that the socially conservative values of the African‐American community are a strong deterrent to adolescent drinking, affecting even those adolescents who are themselves white but associate with black youth.     

Some of my Students are Prisoners: Issues and Dilemmas for Social Work Educators

Higher education recruitment principles and procedures which seek to redress social exclusion have inadvertently resulted in the authors discovering that some of their students are incarcerated. Notwithstanding the important logistical issues which may emerge as a consequence of accepting prisoners into a programme of social work education, it would seem that the inclusion of prisoners is symbolic of a fundamental difference in philosophy with a risk management stance which expects that social work educators act as gatekeepers to the profession, especially in respect of students with criminal convictions.     

The "Positivity Bias" inEvaluations of Public Figures:Evidence Against Instrument Artifacts

The "positivity bias" is a term used to describe the consistentfavorable evaluation of public figures found in surveys overthe past 40 years. This paper explored several possible artifactualexplanations for this bias,focusing on the survey instrumentitself. Two experiments varied the labeling and ordering ofscale endpoints, the affective value of the initial contextevaluated, and the presence or absence of a prestigious jobtitle associated with the nameof the public figure. None ofthe variations produced significantly different levels of positivitythan the standard control condition used in each experiment.RichardR. Lau is a graduate student in social psychology at the Universityof California, Los Angeles. David O. Sears is Professor of Psychologyand Political Science at UCLA. Richard Centers is Professorof Psychology at UCLA. This research was supported in part byGrant #SOC73-09153 A03 from the National Science Foundationto David O. Sears. The authors wish to expess their thanks toMark Williams, who did most of the coding and checking involvedin the survey.     

Qualifications to Generalized Absolutes: "Approval of Hitting" Questions on the GSS

An analysis of "approval of hitting" questions on the GeneralSocial Surveys finds evidence of correlated error. Respondentsfrequently ignore the absolute phrasing of questions. As a result,they often contradict themselves by approving of specific usesof hitting after having rejected any use of such force. Thesecontradictors tend to have lower education and less supportfor punitive responses on other items.     

"Then Let's Have a Dialogue": Interdependence and Negotiation in a Cohesive Regulatory System

Public and private organizations deal closely with each otheron regulatory issues. Newer forms of regulation rely on sharedenforcement and supervisory responsibilities, regulatory negotiation,and other methods that try to get beyond remote public commandswhile maintaining effective public involvement. This articleexamines how regulators and firms deal with each other, theinterdependence that forms between them in the course of theirwork, and the benefits and liabilities of the strong ties thatmay develop out of this interdependence. We use the securitiesindustry as a context for discussion but indicate that the pointsapply more generally. We pay special attention to the potentialbenefits and risks of cohesive regulatory networks. Regulardealings among regulators and firms outside of regular rulemakingor enforcement proceedings enhance cooperation, reduce informationdisparities, strengthen regulatory cultures, and arguably lowerthe threshold of external pressure required to effect changeswithin firms. The conditions enhancing these benefits, however,also will restrict the flow of information, perspectives, andcriticism from outsiders, potentially leading to erosion ofperformance standards and eventually serious problems. We describethe circumstances under which these tensions are more likelyto be managed without damage from these problems and the broaderimplications for research and teaching in public managementand policy.