With Malice toward Some
How People Make Civil Liberties Judgments

The authors examine how citizens faced with a complex variety of considerations decide whether or not to tolerate extremist groups.

George E. Marcus (Author), John L. Sullivan (Author), Elizabeth Theiss-Morse (Author), Sandra L. Wood (Author)

9780521433969, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 October 1995

306 pages, 27 b/w illus. 24 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.62 kg

"...an entirely innovative approach to understanding the dynamics of political intolerance....None who care about public opinion and democracy can afford to ignore this most important book." American Politics

With Malice toward Some: How People Make Civil Liberties Judgments addresses an issue integral to democratic societies: how people faced with a complex variety of considerations decide whether or not to tolerate extremist groups. Relying on several survey-experiments, Marcus, Sullivan, Theiss-Morse, and Wood identify and compare the impact on decision making of contemporary information, long-standing predispositions, and enduring values and beliefs. Citizens react most strongly to information about a group's violations of behavioral norms and information about the implications for democracy of the group's actions. The authors conclude that democratic citizens should have a strong baseline of tolerance yet be attentive to and thoughtful about current information.

Preface: Political tolerance and democratic life
Part I. Theoretical Background and Overview: 1. Political tolerance and democratic practice
2. Antecedent considerations and contemporary information
3. Thinking and mood
Part II. Contemporary Information and Political Tolerance Judgments: 4. Tolerance judgments and contemporary information - the basic studies
Appendix 4A. The basic experiments - manipulation checks
Part III. Refining the Model - The Role of Antecedent Conserations as Individual Differences: 5. Threat and political tolerance
6. Democratic values as standing decisions and contemporary information
7. Source credibility, political knowledge and animus in making tolerance judgments - the Texas experiment
8. Individual differences: The influence of personality
Part IV. Implications and Conclusions: 9. Intensity, motivations, and behavioral intentions
10. Human nature and political tolerance
Appendices
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA]