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的重要价值观。两者之间的平衡往往反映在作出决定所需多数的大小上，是制定宪法的一个核心问题，是立法机构和议会规则的主要特征设计的动机，也是法院审理的案件中经常出现的问题。不幸的是，社会科学对公众如何权衡多数统治和少数权利的理解非常有限。本研究考察了美国公众对多数人统治和少数人权利的态度。它通过关注公众对涉及参议院阻挠议事的突出立法斗争的看法来做到这一点-延长辩论旨在阻止投票。参议院的终结规则规定，五分之三的当选参议员必须结束辩论，并对一项动议进行表决，这一规则允许大量少数人阻止多数人采取行动。这项研究利用现有的调查小组，以评估公众的意见，多数统治和少数人的权利，在抽象的，并在回应重大立法事件。本研究探讨了多数人统治，少数人权利，和阻挠议事，政策偏好，政党偏好和其他因素，如政治成熟度和教育的影响，涉及阻挠议事的立法结果的评估抽象的观点。这项研究吸引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者关于国会政治的教科书中，这是本科生在这方面阅读最广泛的教科书之一。调查人员经常在公民和学术团体面前发言，经常在广播和电视节目中担任嘉宾，经常担任立法机构的顾问，所有这些都是公众对多数人统治，少数人权利和国会程序的理解经常成为问题的论坛。通过与Weidenbaum中心的合作，研究成果将被纳入非技术出版物，并分发给广大普通读者

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