Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1994, Vol 39(2), 225. Reviews the book, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion by John Zaller (1992). The author's commendable effort to specify a model of mass opinion formation offers readers an introduction to the prevailing vi

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.

Preface Introduction: Traditions of Nationhood in France and Germany I. The Institution of Citizenship 1. Citizenship as Social Closure 2. The French Revolution and the Invention of National Citizenship 3. State, State-System, and Citizenship in Germany II. Defining The Citizenry: The Bounds of Belonging 4. Citizenship and Naturalization in France and Germany 5. Migrants into Citizens: The Crystallization of Jus Soli in Late-Nineteenth-Century France 6. The Citizenry as Community of Descent: The Nationalization of Citizenship in Wilhelmine Germany 7. \"Etre Francais, Cela se Merite\": Immigration and the Politics of Citizenship in France in the 1980s 8. Continuities in the German Politics of Citizenship Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany.

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

/pdf/the-precariat-the-new-dangerous-class-3tq7b7h7fg.pdf

The Precariat. The New Dangerous Class

Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World.

Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World

Does interracial/interethnic propinquity breed hostility or harmony? Group threat and contact theories generally answer hostility and harmony, respectively. I propose that a historically and culturally rooted racial/ethnic hierarchy differentially shapes whites' present- day threat of, contact with, and ultimately, prejudice towards blacks, Hispanics and Asians. Because Hispanics and Asians have ascended in this hierarchy, they arouse less threat and have more comfortable interactions with whites. Results from multilevel models of 2000 General Social Survey and Census data indicate that the real presence of blacks - not Hispanics or Asians - living near whites heightens whites' prejudice. Moreover, whites who know Hispanics and Asians are less prejudiced towards them, but whites need to both know and feel close to blacks to experience reduced prejudice. Implications are discussed. If the problem of the 20 th

The Ties That Bind and Those That Don't: Toward Reconciling Group Threat and Contact Theories of Prejudice

Objective. Many racial/ethnic policies in the United States—from desegregation to affirmative action policies—presume that contact improves racial/ethnic relations. Most research, however, tests related theories in isolation from one another and focuses on black-white contact. This article tests contact, cultural, and group threat theories to learn how contact in different interactive settings affects whites' stereotypes of blacks and Hispanics, now the largest minority group in the country.

Method. We use multi-level modeling on 2000 General Social Survey data linked to Census 2000 metropolitan statistical area/county-level data.

Results. Net of the mixed effects of regional culture and racial/ethnic composition, contact in certain interactive settings ameliorates anti-black and anti-Hispanic stereotypes.

Conclusions. Cultural and group threat theories better explain anti-black stereotypes than anti-Hispanic stereotypes, but as contact theory suggests, stereotypes can be overcome with relatively superficial contact under the right conditions. Results provide qualified justification for the preservation of desegregation and affirmative action policies.

Nice to Know You? Testing Contact, Cultural, and Group Threat Theories of Anti‐Black and Anti‐Hispanic Stereotypes*

Cross-National Differences in Workers’ Perceived Job, Labour Market, and Employment Insecurity in Europe: Empirical Tests and Theoretical Extensions

The intersection of race and immigrant status forms a unique social space where minority group members and immigrants are afforded or denied the privileges that are routinely accorded to native-born, non-Hispanic whites. Yet recent research on the intersection of race and immigrant status is inconsistent in its findings, limited to a small number of racial groups, and does not account for the geographic distribution of racial/ethnic groups. In this paper, we shed light on the intersection of race and immigrant status by answering two questions: (1) Do racial disparities in socioeconomic outcomes vary by nativity? and (2) Do native-immigrant disparities in socioeconomic outcomes vary by race? Using 2000 Census data linked to metropolitan area and sending country data, we find that racial disparities are similar and significant among natives and immigrants (Question 1). Asians, blacks, and Latinos fare significantly worse than their white counterparts in both the native and immigrant populations. Furthermore, our analysis of native-immigrant wage disparities by race reveals that the immigrant experience is considerably worse for Asians, blacks, and Latinos (Question 2). These groups also receive fewer wage returns to years spent in the U.S. and their wage disparities are magnified by the percentage of immigrants in a metropolitan area – whereas all whites receive a wage premium when living in an area with a larger share of immigrants. The results suggest that race and immigrant status work in concert to uniquely influence the social experience of immigrant minorities in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it Race, Immigrant Status, or Both? An Analysis of Wage Disparities among Men in the United States

In light of claims of a generational conflict over age-specific policies and the current fiscal troubles of related governmental programs, this article examines Americans' attitudes toward education, health, and Social Security spending through the use of a new methodology designed to uncover asymmetries in public opinion and disentangle age, period, and cohort effects. Based on generalized ordered logit models within a cross-classified fixed-effects framework using General Social Survey data between 1984 and 2008, we find little evidence consistent with gray peril and self-interest hypotheses suggesting that older people support spending for health care and Social Security but not education. The divide in attitudes toward education spending is the result of cohort—not age—effects. Yet these cohort effects extend to other attitudes and are asymmetrical: The so-called greatest generation (born around 1930 or earlier) is ambivalent about government spending and especially likely to say that we spend the "right amount" on health care. As people approach retirement age, they also become more likely to say that we spend the "right amount" on Social Security. The nuanced ways in which American public opinion is divided by age and cohort are uncovered only through the use of a new methodology that does not conceive of public support and opposition as symmetrical. Historical.

Jeffrey C. Dixon

Papers

The Ties That Bind and Those That Don't: Toward Reconciling Group Threat and Contact Theories of Prejudice

Nice to Know You? Testing Contact, Cultural, and Group Threat Theories of Anti‐Black and Anti‐Hispanic Stereotypes*

Cross-National Differences in Workers’ Perceived Job, Labour Market, and Employment Insecurity in Europe: Empirical Tests and Theoretical Extensions

Is it Race, Immigrant Status, or Both? An Analysis of Wage Disparities among Men in the United States

Generational Conflict Or Methodological Artifact?Reconsidering the Relationship between Age and Policy Attitudes in the U.S., 1984–2008