With Malice toward Some: How People Make Civil Liberties Judgments

by George E. Marcus , John L. Sullivan , Elizabeth Theiss-Morse , Sandra L. Wood

• ISBN13: 9780521439978
• ISBN10: 0521439973
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-09-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

With Malice toward Some: How People Make Civil Liberties Judgments addresses an issue integral to democratic societies: how people faced with a complex variety of considerations decide whether or not to tolerate extremist groups. Relying on several survey-experiments, Marcus, Sullivan, Theiss-Morse, and Wood identify and compare the impact on decision making of contemporary information, long-standing predispositions, and enduring values and beliefs. Citizens react most strongly to information about a group's violations of behavioral norms and information about the implications for democracy of the group's actions. The authors conclude that democratic citizens should have a strong baseline of tolerance yet be attentive to and thoughtful about current information.

Table of Contents

Preface: Political tolerance and democratic life

Part I. Theoretical Background and Overview: 1. Political tolerance and democratic practice

2. Antecedent considerations and contemporary information

3. Thinking and mood

Part II. Contemporary Information and Political Tolerance Judgments: 4. Tolerance judgments and contemporary information -The basic studies

Appendix 4A: The basic experiments -manipulation checks

Part III. Refining the Model - The Role of Antecedent Conserations as Individual Differences: 5. Threat and political tolerance

6. Democratic values as standing decisions and contemporary information

7. Source credibility, political knowledge and animus in making tolerance judgments - the Texas experiment

8. Individual differences: The influence of personality

Part IV. Implications and Conclusions: 9. Intensity, motivations, and behavioral intentions

10. Human nature and political tolerance

Appendices

Bibliography.