The social bases of public opinion on military issues: The example of Star Wars.
Item
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Title
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The social bases of public opinion on military issues: The example of Star Wars.
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Identifier
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AAI9009749
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identifier
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9009749
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Creator
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Klein, Joshua Richard.
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Contributor
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Adviser: William Kornblum
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Date
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1989
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, General | Political Science, International Law and Relations | Sociology, Theory and Methods
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Abstract
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This thesis proposed and tested a method for selecting predictors of opinion on military policy using commercial poll data. The proposed public opinion model was based on a class-ideology-opinion paradigm and drawn from the mass-elite and class perspectives in the field. The model was applied to a poll dataset to investigate the socioeconomic bases of opinion on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and other military policies. An evaluation of this model was made both in methodological and substantive terms.;Two sets of logistic regression analyses were performed using both a selective and a non-selective procedure. Based on a public opinion formation model, the selective procedure used ideological identification as a filtering step; those variables which were not related to ideological identification were eliminated from the subsequent analysis of military policy questions. In the full set (non-selective) variable run, no such selection procedure was used. The public opinion model revealed that gender and ideological identification, and to a lesser extent, urbanity, were the significant predictors of opinions on military policies. When a regression analysis was performed using all the variables to opinion on military policies, the procedure revealed that gender and race were the significant predictors of the final dependent variable, a choice between pursuing the development of SDI to the exclusion of negotiations, and pursuing negotiations to the exclusion of the SDI weapons program.;The thesis explored two major findings of the logistic regression analyses. First, both income and education, which were important predictors of opinion about war in previous studies, were not predictors for opinion on the arms race and the SDI weapons system during a comparatively peaceful period. Second, race and gender, two characteristics that have been found to predict opinions about war, were also significant predictors of opinion about military policy during peacetime. Specifically, women and blacks were more questioning of SDI's effectiveness, and more likely to support a diplomatic policy in dealing with the Soviet Union, while whites and men were more likely to favor the building of weapons system to the exclusion of negotiation with the Soviet Union. It was suggested that if race and gender are treated as socioeconomic strata, or as segments of social class, then sociological theories on power, inequality, and the state can be applied to the findings, with promising questions for future research.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
