Collaborative Research: Americans' Response to the Economic Crisis: Public Attitudes toward Social Policies

美国公众如何应对21世纪的经济和政治变革？持续的经济危机是否影响了选民的政策偏好？危机和奥巴马政府的立法反应产生了更多（还是更少？）在社会福利、税收和国家安全方面支持政府干预？这项合作研究旨在为这些问题找到答案。 该项目通过将于2010年进行的一项新的全国性调查来进行：美国对危机的政策态度调查。本调查采用实验方法来衡量政策态度形成的动态。数据收集恰逢影响深远的经济衰退（以及一系列立法冲突），这些机制可能会对舆论变化施加压力。调查实验将提供结果，用以评判关于危机时期公众舆论如何形成的两种对立观点。经济学方法将公众舆论视为一个自我调节的系统，在这个系统中，环境和政策的变化不断地对公众态度的转变施加压力。第二种方法认为，大众舆论更根本地是由预先存在的社会力量和意识形态偏见塑造的。这种方法预计会对变革压力产生更大的阻力，而且在自由派和保守派以及中产阶级和工人阶级等关键群体中，对这种压力的反应也截然不同。更广泛的影响除了推进关于舆论形成动态的学术研究外，2010年SAPAC调查还将有可能对美国政策态度目前的演变进行广泛的、长期的描绘。这是因为2010年的数据收集将直接扩展我们在2007年和2009年进行的早期调查。在研究有关社会福利、税收和国家安全的问题时，这项研究关注了21世纪对美国人具有持久重要性的问题。

SES-0960960Ernest BrooksIndiana UniversitySES-0961536Jeff ManzaNew York UniversityHow does the American public respond to economic and political change in the 21st century? Did the ongoing economic crisis affect voters' policy preferences? And have the crisis and legislative responses by the Obama administration generated more (or less?) support for government interventions when it comes to social welfare, taxes, and national security? This collaborative research seeks to develop answers to these questions. The project does so through a new national survey to be conducted in 2010: The Survey of American Policy Attitudes toward the Crisis (SAPAC). This survey uses experimental methods to gauge the dynamics of policy attitude formation. The data collection coincides with a far-reaching economic downturn (and set of legislative conflicts) that are mechanisms potentially exerting pressure toward opinion change. The survey experiments will offer results with which to adjudicate two competing views of how public opinion is formed during times of crisis. The economic approach views public opinion as a self-regulating system in which environmental and policy changes continually exert pressure toward shifts in public attitudes. A second approach sees mass opinion as more fundamentally shaped by pre-existing social forces and ideological biases. This approach anticipates greater resistance to change pressures, and also quite different responses to such pressures among such key groups as liberals and conservatives, and middle and working-class Americans. Broader Impacts In addition to advancing scholarship on the dynamics of opinion formation, the 2010 SAPAC survey will also make possible a broad, over-time portrait of how American policy attitudes are currently evolving. This is because the 2010 data collection will directly extend earlier surveys we fielded in 2007 and 2009. In looking at questions concerning social welfare, taxes, and national security, this research brings into focus issues of lasting importance to Americans in the 21st century.