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| List of Figures, Boxes, and Tables | |
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| Preface | |
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| Public Opinion and American Democracy | |
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| Public Opinion and American Democracy | |
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| Defining Public Opinion | |
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| Does Public Opinion Matter? | |
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| Public Opinion versus Public Judgment | |
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| Opinions, Attitudes, and Beliefs | |
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| The Current Environment | |
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| The Plan of the Book | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| Measuring American Opinion: The Origins of Polling | |
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| The Origins of Public Opinion Polling | |
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| The Development of Survey Research | |
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| The Election of 1948: A Temporary Setback | |
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| After 1948: Continued Growth | |
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| A Surge in Telephone Interviewing: The Development of Random-Digit Dialing | |
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| The Rise of Internet Polling | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| How are Opinions Measured and Used? | |
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| How Public Opinion Data are Used | |
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| Using Public Opinion in Political Campaigns | |
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| The Use of Public Opinion Polling by Elected Officeholders | |
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| The Use of Polling Data by Government Agencies | |
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| Public Opinion and Interest Groups | |
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| The Use of Polling by the Media | |
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| Tracking Presidential Approval Ratings | |
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| The Call-In Poll | |
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| The Use of Public Opinion Data in Academic Research | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| How are Opinions Measured? | |
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| Modes of Survey Data Collection | |
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| Populations of Interest | |
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| Selecting a Sample | |
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| Random-Digit Dialing | |
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| Sampling for Electronic Data Collection | |
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| Sampling Error | |
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| Sample Size | |
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| Questionnaire Design | |
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| Data Analysis | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| What do Americans Believe? | |
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| The Sources of Opinions | |
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| The Political Learning of Children and Adolescents | |
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| The Influence of Formal Education | |
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| The Curriculum | |
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| Ritual and Ceremony | |
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| The Teachers | |
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| School Behaviors | |
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| The Influence of Ethnic Identity | |
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| Religion and Public Opinion | |
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| Gender and Opinions | |
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| The Influence of Peers | |
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| Generational Influences on Opinion | |
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| The Media's Influence on Opinion | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| What the Public Knows about Politics | |
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| Early Empirical Investigations | |
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| The Unchanging American Voter | |
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| Applying Democratic Principles | |
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| Group Differences in Knowledge | |
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| The Consequences of Political Knowledge | |
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| A Glass-Half-Full Perspective? | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| Political Orientations | |
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| Political Ideology | |
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| Party Identification | |
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| Confidence in Institutions | |
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| Trust in Government | |
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| Power of the Federal Government | |
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| Summary | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| Public Opinion on Social-Welfare Issues | |
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| Social-Welfare Issues | |
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| Social Security | |
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| Education | |
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| Health Care | |
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| Assisting the Needy | |
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| The Environment | |
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| The Issue of Global Warming | |
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| Group Differences in Attitudes | |
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| Summary | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| Americans' Views on Racial Issues | |
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| Racial Desegregation | |
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| Fair Employment Practices | |
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| Affirmative Action | |
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| Government Aid to Minority Groups | |
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| Spending on Racial Issues | |
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| Other Issues of Race: Historical and Contemporary | |
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| The Increasing Influence of Hispanics | |
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| Summary | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| Public Opinion on Highly Controversial Issues | |
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| The Politics of Crime and Criminal Justice | |
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| The Politics of Individual Rights | |
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| Public Opinion toward Abortion | |
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| Public Opinion on Gay Issues | |
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| American Views on Gun Control | |
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| Thinking about Weapons and Government Controls | |
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| Immigration: A Mind Divided | |
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| Summary | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| How Americans View Foreign and Defense Policies | |
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| American Opinion in the Post-9/11 World | |
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| Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: Which Opinions? | |
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| Foreign Policy Goals and Priorities | |
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| Issues of War and Peace | |
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| Terrorism and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq | |
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| Peacekeeping, Rescue, and Other Uses of Military Force | |
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| Foreign Aid and Other International Issues | |
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| How Do Americans Think about Foreign Policy? | |
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| Summary | |
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| Polls, Polling, and the Internet | |
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| Public Opinion: A Critical Perspective | |
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| Challenges Facing Public Opinion Research: Issues of Reliability and Trust | |
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| Pseudo-Polls | |
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| Technological Developments | |
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| Respondent Factors | |
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| The Cost of Survey Errors | |
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| The Continuing Case for Polling | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Sources of Public Opinion Data | |
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| Questions from the American National Election Studies and General Social Surveys | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Notes | |
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| References | |
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| Index | |
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| About the Authors | |