Majority Rule and Minority Rights: A Panel Study of Democratic Values and Attitudes toward the Senate Filibuster Among the American Public

多数人统治和少数人权利是民主制度的重要价值。两者之间的平衡往往反映在一项决定所需的多数票的大小上，这是制定宪法的一个核心问题，促使立法机构和议会规则的关键特征的设计，并经常在法院审理的案件中出现。不幸的是，社会科学对公众如何权衡多数决定原则和少数人权利的理解非常有限。这项研究考察了美国公众对多数人统治和少数人权利的态度。它通过关注公众对包括参议院阻挠议事在内的主要立法斗争的看法来做到这一点。参议院阻挠议事是指旨在阻止投票的延长辩论。参议院的结束辩论规则规定，必须有五分之三多数当选参议员才能结束辩论并对一项动议进行投票，这一规则允许多数少数阻止多数行动。本研究利用现有的调查小组来评估公众对多数决定原则和少数人权利的看法，无论是抽象的还是对重大立法事件的回应。该研究考察了多数决定原则、少数人权利和阻挠议事的抽象观点、政策偏好、政党偏好以及政治成熟度和教育等其他因素对涉及阻挠议事的立法结果评估的影响。本研究聘请了几名学生作为研究助理，这将为学生创造一个机会，使他们更深入地参与调查研究，参加专业会议，并合作撰写研究报告。调查结果将反映在调查人员编写的国会政治教科书中，这是本科生阅读人数最多的国会政治教科书之一。调查人员经常在公民和学术团体面前发表演讲，经常在广播和电视节目上做客，经常为立法机构提供咨询，在所有这些论坛上，公众对多数决定原则、少数人权利和国会程序的理解经常是一个问题。通过与Weidenbaum中心合作，研究结果将被纳入非技术出版物并分发给广大读者

Majority rule and minority rights are important values in a democracy. The balance between them, often reflected in the size of the majority required for a decision, is a central issue in the making of constitutions, motivates the design of key features of legislative institutions and parliamentary rules, and regularly figures in cases before courts. Unfortunately, the social sciences have very limited understanding of how the public weighs majority rule and minority rights. This research examines public attitudes about majority rule and minority rights in the United States. It does so by focusing on public views about prominent legislative battles involving the Senate filibuster - extended debate intended to prevent a vote. The Senate's cloture rule provides that a three-fifths majority of elected senators is required to close debate and move to a vote on a motion, a rule that allows a large minority to prevent majority action. This study exploits an existing survey panel to assess the public's views of majority rule and minority rights both in the abstract and in response to major legislative episodes. The study examines the effect of abstract views of majority rule, minority rights, and the filibuster, policy preferences, party preferences and other factors such as political sophistication and education on evaluations of legislative outcomes involving the filibuster. This research engages several students as research assistants, which will create an opportunity for the students to become more deeply involved in survey research, attend professional meetings, and collaborate in writing research reports. The findings will be reflected in on the investigator's textbook on congressional politics, which is one of the most widely-read textbooks by undergraduates on the subject. The investigators are frequent speakers before civic and academic groups, frequent guests on radio and television programs, and frequent consultants to legislatures, all of which are forums in which the public's understanding of majority rule, minority rights, and congressional procedure is frequently an issue. By working with the Weidenbaum Center, the research findings will be incorporated in non-technical publications and distributed to a large general audience