The Impact of Political Debate on Government Trust: Reminding the Public What the Federal Government Does

Americans' confidence in government is low by historical standards. We fielded a national telephone survey to examine influences on government confidence and whether public discontent was affected by altering the salience of specific government operations. We used a question order experiment where we alternated between first asking a general question about confidence in government and first asking about confidence in specific government operations. We found that posing the specific policy questions first elevated general confidence more than the reverse. The largest and most noticeable effects were observed for Republicans and those most knowledgeable and attentive to politics. Findings of context effects and the partisan subgroup differences are consistent with existing theories on public opinion change as well as with previous question order experiments. But, evidence that the cognitive elite was especially influenced by question order challenges previous theories that presumed that its sophistication made it immune to influence. We suggest that education and political knowledge expand rather than contract the opportunities for priming.     

Book reviews

Tibor Szamuely, The Russian Tradition. (Edited and with an Introduction by Robert Conquest.) London: Secker & Warburg, 1974. x+443 pp. £5.00.

Mahmoud Abdel‐Fadil, La Planification des prix en économie socialiste, Essai méthodologique. (Préface de Henri Bartoli.) Série: Sciences Economiques —3. Paris: Publications de l'Université de Paris I—Panthéon‐Sorbonne, 1975. 296 pp.

Jan Adam, Wage, Price and Taxation Policy in Czechoslovakia 1948–1970. Veröffentlichungen des Osteuropa‐Institutes, München. Reihe: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Heft 15. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1974. 231 pp. DM 66.60.

Stephen Osofsky, Soviet Agricultural Policy. Toward the Abolition of Collective Farms. (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development.) New York: Praeger, 1974. xi+300 pp. $20.00.

Peter J. Potichnyj, Soviet Agricultural Trade Unions, 1917–70. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and London: OUP, 1972. xix+258 pp. £6.25.

Roy A. Medvedev, On Socialist Democracy. (Translated from the Russian and edited by Ellen de Kadt.) London: Macmillan, 1975. xxii+405 +xv pp. £12.00.

The Bolsheviks and the October Revolution. Minutes of the Central Committee of the Russian Social‐Democratic Labour Party (bolsheviks) August 1917‐February 1918. Translated from the Russian by Ann Bone. London: Pluto Press, 1974. x+331 pp. £6.60. £2.70 (paperback).

G. I. Tunkin, Theory of International Law. Translated, with an introduction, by William E. Butler. London: Allen & Unwin, 1975. First published in Great Britain in 1974. xxv+497 pp. £8.00.

Bohdan R. Bociurkiw and John W. Strong (eds.), Religion and Atheism in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. London: Macmillan, 1975. xviii+412 pp. £10.00.

R. S. Mathieson, The Soviet Union: An Economic Geography. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1975. xvii+342 pp. £7.50.

Violet Conolly, Siberia Today and Tomorrow. A Study of Economic Resources, Problems and Achievements. London and Glasgow: Collins, 1975. 248 pp. £4–95.

Burton Paulu, Radio and Television Broadcasting in Eastern Europe. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP and London: OUP, 1974. xi+592 pp. £13.25.

John McLeish, Soviet Psychology: History, Theory, Content. London: Methuen, 1975. xii+308 pp. £6.95.

Robin Edmonds, Soviet Foreign Policy 1962–1973: The Paradox of Super Power. London: OUP, 1975. xiv+197 pp. £4.50.

Michael MccGwire, Ken Booth and John McDonnell (eds.), Soviet Naval Policy. Objectives and Constraints. (Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government.) New York: Praeger and London: Pall Mall Press, 1975. xxvi+663 pp. $32.50. £14.25.

Jerome M. Gilison, The Soviet Image of Utopia. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1975. 192 pp. £4.85.

Victor Serge and Natalia Sedova Trotsky, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky. London: Wildwood House, 1975. 296 pp. £6.95.     

Joining Hands Northand South

<正>The signing of China-Australia FTA deal ushers in a new era for Asia-Pacific trade The final signing of the Free Trade Agreement(FTA) between Australia and China on June 18 marks the end of discussions and negotiations that have been ongoing since the mid-2000s.While nowhere near as epic as the 14-year period during which China was working on entering the World Trade Organization up to the time of its entry in 2001,     

Britain After Brexit

On January 31,Britain exited the EU after being a member for 47 years.Rather than national celebrations,and a statement before a live crowd from Prime Minister Boris Johnson,the event itself was marked in an almost low-key way.After all,this was something which had been attempted two times before,under the prime ministership of Theresa May,and once under Johnson.Johnson’s final securing of an agreement to exit from the British parliament this time was a direct result of his being able to secure a working majority in the December 12,2019,election for the Conservative Party.