Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Summary of Findings Nine months before the midterm elections, the Democrats hold a sizable lead in the congressional horse race and an advantage on most major issues. Democrats lead by 50%-41% among registered voters in the test ballot, which is little changed from last September (52%-40%). While retaining a huge advantage on traditional party strengths […]
Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Florida, in May 2006 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle conference on religion, politics and public life. Conference speaker Michael Cook, widely considered among the most outstanding scholars on the history of Islam, is the author of several classic works on […]
Large social networks provide opportunities and burdens. The opportunities provided by large social networks are obvious. There are more people to socialize with and to provide social capital. There is the possibility for more diversity in larger networks, and that expands the kinds of experiences people share within a network and the kinds of resources […]
There has been an explosion in the modes and reach of remote communication. When Wellman conducted his early studies of social ties in 1968 and 1979,[8.numoffset=”8″ See Wellman (1979) and Wellman and Wortley (1990).] the results were relatively straightforward. Americans either telephoned (using traditional “landline” phones, of course)[9. There is no popular term for traditional […]
Does the internet degrade friendship, kinship, civic involvement, and social capital? One of the great debates about the internet is what it is doing to the relationships that Americans have with friends, relatives, neighbors, and workmates. On the one hand, many extol the internet’s abilities to extend our relationships — we can contact people across […]
Public opinion played a major role in the most important news stories of the year, from President Bush’s battle with an increasingly restive opposition, to the public’s mounting anxiety about the war in Iraq, to the sharp public rebuke of Congress for its intervention in the Terry Schiavo affair. Many of the strongest trends in […]
The Brookings Institution Washington, D.C. U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., was first elected to the United States Senate in 1972 at the age of 29 and is currently serving his sixth term. Senator Biden serves on the Foreign Relations Committee and the Judiciary Committee and is recognized as a leading expert on national security […]
Hay-Adams Hotel Washington, D.C. The relationship between Islam and the West will be a defining feature of the 21st century, particularly in the Middle East. How should U.S. policymakers engage with the Muslim world? Will the spread of democracy throughout the Muslim world blunt the militant forces generating terrorism? How will European governments and populations […]