Objective. Previous research on opinions related to foreign policy has reported that elites and masses have similarly structured opinions; however, few researchers have analyzed the dynamic relationship between specific elite and mass opinions. We seek to determine whether, consistent with elite theory, elites shape mass opinions or, consistent with democratic-responsiveness theory, whether the masses shape elite opinions. Methods. We use a pooled time-series design to analyze mass and elite foreign policy opinions from 1974 to 1994. Results. Our findings indicate that the relationship between mass and elite foreign-policy opinions is nonrecursive, which supports both theories of opinion formation. Conclusions. Our results suggest that elite theory and democratic responsiveness theory are not mutually exclusive, but, instead, are intertwined in the area of opinions related to foreign policy.
The Social Science Quarterly was founded as the Southwestern Political Science Quarterly in 1920. It was the first social science journal published in the United States by a regional social science organization. The interdisciplinary character of the journal was made explicit in 1923 when the journal became the Southwestern Political and Social Science Quarterly. Eight years later it was renamed Southwestern Social Science Quarterly. In 1968, as part of the decision to deemphasize the regional nature of the journal and stress its interdisciplinary social scientific aspect, the name of the journal was changed to Social Science Quarterly. Today the journal has international stature both in terms of its authors and its subscribers. The journal publishes research, theoretical essays, position papers, and book reviews by economists, geographers, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and other social scientists, but its preference is for papers which bridge two or more of these disciplines. By the late 1980s circulation for the publication was about 2,700.
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Social Science Quarterly
© 1997 University of Texas Press
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