Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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More than eight years after former President George W. Bush unveiled his faith-based initiative to make it easier for religious groups to receive government funding to provide social services, the policy continues to draw broad public support. But as was the case when Bush first announced the initiative, many Americans express concerns about blurring the […]
Summary of Findings In a busy late summer news stretch, Americans continued to track news about the health care debate more closely than other major stories last week. The economy, the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and the strange case of a California woman rescued from long-time captors also vied for the public’s attention. […]
Publics across the globe are aware of the swine flu pandemic, and in most of the countries polled, majorities of those who are aware are worried about exposure to it. Anxiety is generally concentrated in developing countries, particularly in Asia where other recent flu pandemics have begun. Perhaps surprisingly, concern is not especially widespread in […]
Introduction Like many technical innovations, the internet was greeted enthusiastically by those who thought it would “change everything” when it comes to democratic governance. Among its predicted salutary effects is the capacity of the internet to permit ordinary citizens to short-circuit political elites and deal directly with one another and public officials; to foster deliberation, […]
What is associated with the size of discussion networks? There is a great concern that over the last twenty years the size and diversity of Americans’ core networks have declined; that core networks are increasingly centered on a small set of relatively similar social ties at the expense of larger more diverse networks. Is there […]