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© 1991 World Association for Public Opinion Research

LIFE AND DEATH AS PUBLIC POLICY: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND ABORTION IN AMERICAN POLITICAL OPINION

William J. M. Claggett and Byron E. Shafer

Abstract

Recent decisions of the US Supreme Court, in returning to the issues of capital punishment and abortion, have simultaneously expanded the potential for public opinion on these issues to have an impact on public policy. This article considers the distribution of the available combinations of attitudes toward issues of the institutionalized taking (or preservation) of human life, both in the general American public and in subgroups which combine these opinions in distinctive fashion. These patterns are then compared to attitudes among partisan political activists, suggesting a further set of recurring, élite-mass tensions. Finally, the resulting tensions and cross-pressures are examined for their relationship to the presidential vote in 1984 and 1980.


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