Public Opinion in Alabama

The attitudes of individual citizens play a central role in a democracy. In the United States today, the two major parties are each associated with a broad set of policy positions representing the conservative and liberal political ideologies. The two major parties are becoming increasingly polarized on these ideologies between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. This book provides an in-depth examination of public opinion in a single American state, Alabama, to see whether the public opinion of general citizens follows this stereotype of ideological and partisan polarization. Alabama public opinion is analyzed on a fairly wide range of issues, including the quality of public officials, constitutional reform, the role of government in terms of taxes and overall spending, education, health care, religion in public life, crime, and immigration. Alabama is generally perceived as staunchly conservative politically and as a reliably 'red' Republican state in national elections. Yet, public opinion in Alabama is considerably more nuanced and complex than this stereotype in two distinct aspects. First, Alabamians are certainly conservative on many issues, but they are also liberal on a significant number of others. Second, the issue positions of the state's citizens are shaped by three different dynamics in terms of what factors influence specific attitudes. Furthermore a brief analysis of public opinion in the entire United States finds similar patterns. Thus, the current polarization in party politics does not necessarily reflect public opinion in its entirety, suggesting a need to transcend the competing conservative and liberal orthodoxies.

Cal Clark is professor of political science and the director of the MPA Program at Auburn University. Don-Terry Veal is director of Auburn University's Center for Governmental Services.

Part 1 Chapter 1
Chapter 2 Public Opinion and Politics
Chapter 3 Contradictory Models of Political Attitudes
Chapter 4 How Alabamians View Their Public Officials
Chapter 5 Organization of the Book
Part 6 Chapter 2
Chapter 7 Support for Constitutional Reform
Chapter 8 Moderate Support for Rewriting the Alabama State Constitution
Chapter 9 Stereotypes of Who Supports and Opposes Constitutional Revision
Chapter 10 Actual Influences on Attitudes about Constitutional Revision
Chapter 11 Assessing the Simultaneous Effects of the Explanatory Items: The Centrality of the Government Activism Dimension
Chapter 12 Attitudes about Home Rule
Chapter 13 Public Opinion about Constitutional Reform
Part 14 Chapter 3
Chapter 15 Views about the Role of Government
Chapter 16 Somewhat Contradictory Positions on Tax Issues
Chapter 17 How Alabamians Divide on Tax Burden and Tax Policy: Support for the Anti-Tax Economic Stress Model
Chapter 18 The Complex Cleavages over Governor Riley's Tax Referendum
Chapter 19 Alabamians' Evident Desire for Public Services
Chapter 20 How Alabamians Divide on Government Services: The Prevalence of the Standard Ideological Model
Chapter 21 The Contradictory Implications of Alabamians' Views about Public Services
Part 22 Chapter 4
Chapter 23 More Specific Views about Social Services
Chapter 24 Alabamians' Views on Public Education: Concerns about Both Quality and Traditional Values
Chapter 25 How Alabamians Divide on Education: Different Dynamics for Different Issues
Chapter 26 Alabamians' Views about Health Care: Is the Glass Partially Empty or Partially Full?
Chapter 27 How Alabamians' Divide on Health Care: Medical Problems over Ideology
Chapter 28 The Conundrum about Education and Health Care in Alabama
Part 29 Chapter 5
Chapter 30 Religion and Public Life
Chapter 31 Alabamians Views on Religion and Politics: Quite Conservative But with a Couple of Caveats
Chapter 32 How Alabamians Divide on the Role of Religion in Public Life: Clearly a Cultural Issue
Chapter 33 A Resistance to Over-Politicizing Some Religious Issues?
Chapter 34 Religion and Political Life in Alabama
Part 35 Chapter 6
Chapter 36 Views about Crime and Immigration
Chapter 37 Alabamians' Views about Crime: Significant But Not Overwhelming Concern
Chapter 38 How Alabamians Divide on Crime: An Absence of Significant Relationships
Chapter 39 Strong Concern over Illegal Immigration
Chapter 40 Why Alabamians Differ about Illegal Immigration: General Support for the Cultural Issues Ideological Model
Chapter 41 Immigration and Crime as Issues in Alabama
Part 42 Chapter 7
Chapter 43 Public Opinion in Alabama and the United States: Defying the Stereotypes
Chapter 44 What Do Alabamians Want?
Chapter 45 The Similar Dynamics in U.S. Public Opinion
Chapter 46 Public Opinion and the Polarization of U.S. Politics
Chapter 47 About the Authors