Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T02:34:06.615Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Policy Support within a Target Group: The Case of School Desegregation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Douglas S. Gatlin ,
Micheal W. Giles  and
Everett F. Cataldo
Douglas S. Gatlin
Affiliation:
Florida Atlantic University
Micheal W. Giles
Affiliation:
Florida Atlantic University
Everett F. Cataldo
Affiliation:
Cleveland State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study empirically tests three theoretical approaches to explaining specific support for a policy output among members of its target group. The utilitarian model posits support as a function of objective costs and benefits to the individual stemming directly from the policy. The attitudinal model relates specific support to diffuse predispositions rooted in socialization. The perceptual model holds that specific support derives from beliefs about the character of the political decision process by which the policy was formulated. Tests of these three approaches are based on survey data on specific support for school district desegregation plans among a large sample of black and white parents of public school children in Florida. In both subsamples, the utilitarian approach explained very little of the variance in support, but the attitudinal and perceptual models were corroborated. Implications of these findings are drawn for desegregation policy making and for public policy theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 72 , Issue 3 , September 1978 , pp. 985 - 995
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The research reported herein was conducted under a grant from the National Science Foundation, Division of Research Applied to National Needs, GI-34955. The opinions expressed, however, are those of the authors and shoult not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of any agency of the United States government. The authors are grateful to Deborah Athos, Emilie Rappoport, and Wen-Fu P. Shih, our research associates, for their invaluable assistance at many stages of the project.

References

Almond, Gabriel A., and Verba, Sidney (1963). The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Beckler, John (1971). “Has School Integration in the South Gone as Far as It Can Go?” School Management 15:2.Google Scholar
Chester, Mark A., Guskin, Judith and Erenburg, Phyllis (1969). Planning Educational Change; Vol. 2: Human Resources in School Desegregation. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Coleman, James S., et al. (1966). Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Congressional Quarterly Almanac (1972). Washington: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Crain, Robert L., et al. (1974). Design for a National Longitudinal Study of School Desegregation; Vol 1, Issues in Theory and Method. Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. (1961). Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dennis, Jack (1973). Socialization to Politics. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony (1957). An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Dye, Thomas R., and Zeigler, L. Harmon (1970). The Irony of Democracy. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Easton, David (1965). A Systems Analysis of Political Life. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Edelman, Murray (1960). “Symbols and Political Quiescence.” American Political Science Review 54:695–704.Google Scholar
Farley, Reynolds, and Taeuber, Alma F. (1974). “Racial Segregation in the Public Schools.” American Journal of Sociology 79:888–905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallup Opinion Index (1973). Princeton: Gallup Opinion Index, October, 1973, Report No. 100, 14.Google Scholar
Giles, Micheal W. (1975). “Black Concentration and School District Size as Predictors of School Segregation: The Impact of Federal Enforcement.” Sociology of Education 48:411–19.Google Scholar
Giles, Micheal W., Gatlin, Douglas S. and Cataldo, Everett F. (1976). “Parental Support for School Referenda.” Journal of Politics 38:442–51.Google Scholar
Graglia, Lino A. (1976). Disaster by Decree. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Greeley, Andrew M., and Sheatsley, Paul B. (1971). “Attitudes Toward Racial Integration.” Scientific American 225:13–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, Howard D. (1970). “Direct Legislation: Some Implications of Open Housing Referenda.” American Political Science Review 64:124–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Richard M. (1967). The Dynamics of Compliance: Supreme Court Decision-Making From a New Perspective. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Kelley, Jonathan (1974). “The Politics of School Busing.” Public Opinion Quarterly 38:23–39.Google Scholar
Knapp, Melvin J., and Alston, Jon P. (1972–1973). “White Parental Acceptance of Varying Degrees of School Desegregation: 1965 and 1970.” Public Opinion Quarterly 38:585–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, Robert E., and Sears, David O. (1964). Public Opinion. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Lane, Robert E., and Whitney, Richard E. (1973). Political Persuasion. Morristown, N.J.: General Learning Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Arthur M., and Citrin, Jack (1974). “Political Issues and Trust in Government: 1964–1970.” American Political Science Review 68:951–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, John E. (1973). War, Presidents and Public Opinion. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Nevin, David, and Bills, Robert E. (1976). The Schools that Fear Built. Washington: Acropolis.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole (1970). Participation and Democratic Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas F. (1971). Racially Separate or Together? New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Rourke, Francis E. (1976). Bureaucracy, Politics, and Public Policy. 2nd ed. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Salem, Richard G., and Bowers, William J. (1972). “Severity of Formal Sanctions as a Deterrent to Deviant Behavior.” In Krislov, Samuel, et al. (eds.), Compliance and the Law, pp. 313–32. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
St. John, Nancy H. (1975). School Desegregation: Outcomes for Children. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Stover, Robert V., and Brown, Don W. (1975). “Understanding Compliance and Non-Compliance with Law: The Contributions of Utility Theory.” Social Science Quarterly 56:363–75.Google Scholar
Thompson, Dennis F. (1970). The Democratic Citizen: Social Science and Democratic Theory in the Twentieth Century. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tumin, Melvin, Barton, Paul, and Burrus, Bernie (1958). “Education, Prejudice and Discrimination: A Study in Readiness for Desegregation.” American Sociological Review 23:41–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Gerald C. Jr. (1976). “Linear Models for Evaluating Conditional Relationships.” American Journal of Political Science 20:349–73.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.