What core sources shape West European public opinion on security? The answer to this question is particularly salient both because European security preferences appear to be in flux, and because public preferences for security arrangements substantially influence the future of the Atlantic alliance. This dissertation empirically explored the security opinion formation process within the British, French and West German populations. / Basic theory assumed two sources of security opinion. First, the actions and official statements of political elites furnish strong but transient influence in forming public attitudes, which, in turn, are a basis for opinions. Second, attributes predispose individuals to adopt attitudes, and thus opinions. The influence of attributes is less forceful than are elite cues, but attributes give some stability to opinion--attributes being immutable or slow to change. / The analysis of the influence of attributes and attitudes on opinion was based on results of 1976-1982 public opinion surveys. The dissertation tested the relationships between seven attributes--age cohort, education, cognitive mobilization, partisanship, ideology, values and class--with four attitudes--transnational regional trust, trust in the superpowers, threat perception and preference for the current Atlantic alliance, an independent European force or independent national security forces was tested. The findings of bivariate and multivariate analysis were related to elite cues and to scholarly theory addressing public formation of opinion on foreign policy. / The findings both supported the assumptions on the opinion forming roles of attributes and elite cues and addressed related issues of current interest. The probable security predisposition of the contemporary West European "successor generation," an altered role for Europeans holding post-material values, and the functional--as opposed to geographic--nature of the supranationalist attitude were among major topics addressed. The dissertation ended with a prediction on mid-term stability and change in the role and functioning of the Atlantic alliance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-10, Section: A, page: 3149. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75667 |
| Contributors | BROWN, ROBERT M., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 295 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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