Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Introduction December 9, 2005, marks the 100th anniversary of secularism in France, known as “laïcité.” In 1905 the French government passed a law stipulating “the separation of churches and the state,” thus enshrining secularism as a national principle. The law, which barred the state from officially recognizing, funding or endorsing religious groups, represented a major […]
Political engagement can take on many different forms, including voting, contributing money to a candidate or political group, working or volunteering for a campaign, attending a campaign event or contacting an elected official. But on every measure of engagement, political participation is strongly related to ideology and partisan antipathy; those who hold consistently liberal or […]
Pew Forum Dialogues on Religion & Public Life E.J. Dionne Jr., Jean Bethke Elshtain, Kayla Drogosz, Series Editors Executive Summary (.pdf) Read about the Pew Forum Dialogues Series The United States has been described as a nation with the soul of a church. Religion is discussed more explicitly and more urgently in American politics than […]
As he approaches the end of his first year in office, a 49% plurality of the public approves of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president, while 42% d isapprove. This is largely unchanged from a 49% to 40% margin a month ago. Over the past year, Obama has seen his approval […]
Summary of Findings Americans are paying markedly less attention to Iraq than in the last two months. At the same time, their opinions about the war have become more positive. The number of Americans who think the U.S. military effort is going well has jumped from 46% in May to 57%, despite ongoing violence in […]