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The Supreme Court and Myth: An Empirical Investigation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
Extract
The mass public is often depicted as indifferent to and unaware of many facets of political life which elites deem essential to understanding the political process (Converse, 1964: 209-14, 231-41; Key, 1964: 182-85, 199-202). Yet despite its indifference to political reality as defined by elites, the general public does hold its own version of political reality - albeit a more emotional, more symbolic, and less concrete reality than elites view (Prothro and Grigg, 1960: 276-94; Edelman, 1967: 1-7, 12-19, 178-81; Berger and Luckmann, 1966: 31-34). Popular perceptions of the United States Supreme Court follow this pattern: on the one hand, most observers take for granted that the public appreciates the Court on a symbolic or mythical plane while, on the other hand, most research concludes that the masses lack factual information on this institution.
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- Copyright © The Law and Society Association, 1974.
Footnotes
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I would like to express gratitude to the Graduate Research Council of the University of Missouri-Columbia, whose financial support made possible the survey which generated the data analyzed in this paper; to Professors David C. Leege of the University of Illinois-Chicago Circle and Sarah L. Boggs of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, both formerly of the University of Missouri-Columbia, for their assistance in questionnaire design and coding problems; and to Professors Roger E. Durand, Herbert K. Tillema and Dean L. Yarwood of the University of Missouri-Columbia, and Professor Michael W. Mansfield of Baylor University, for their helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper.
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