Week 4 - Public Opinion and Proposition 23

Agenda

1. Announcements and attendance
2. Review: Zaller's RAS Model & the Civic Voluntarism Model
3. Proposition 23: the supporters, the opponents, and the "undecideds"

Discussion Question:

1. Layzer says that although environmental debates are grounded in values (i.e., what the proper relationship between humans and the larger environment should be), environmental issues are rarely contested on moral grounds. Instead, problems are defined in terms of science, economics, and risks associated with environmental problems. Why is it that we define environmental issues in these ways, as opposed to emphasizing the instrinsic value (or lack of intrinsic value) of the environment? What are the benefits of this type of problem definition, and how has it shaped our debates?
2. If the public knows little about environmental issues, should we let experts deal with these issues? What are the advantages and disadvantages about putting environmental issues/problems up to a vote, as in Proposition 23?

Readings:

1. When we conceptualize energy as a social issue, what are the best predictors of public opinion (e.g., income, education, race, ethnicity, gender, party identification, ideology)? What about where one lives (e.g., urban/rural areas, proximity to environmental problems, etc.)?
2. When we conceptualize energy as an economic issue, what are the best predictors of public opinion (e.g., income, education, race, ethnicity, gender, party identification, ideology)? What about where one lives (e.g., urban/rural areas, proximity to environmental problems, etc)?

Terms:

• Environmentalists vs. Cornucopians
• Agenda setting
• Policy streams
• Policy window
• Policy entrepreneurs
• Life-cycle model of public opinion change
• Generational model of public opinion change
• Period effects
  
• Zaller's (Receive-Accept-Sample) RAS Model
• Egalitarianism
• Heuristics (also see "Rating the Risks")
  
• Issue voting tests (American Voter)
• Political efficacy
• Stern's Values-Beliefs-Norms (VBN) Theory of Behavior
• Civic Voluntarism Model