Policy Feedback and Public Opinion: The Role of Employer Responsibility in Social Policy

Abstract

This study extends the literature on policy feedback and explores the extent to which public attitudes reflect learning from past government initiatives. We analyze the ways in which feedback mechanisms affecting public attitudes may differ from those earlier identified in the literature. We apply this general analytic framework to help explain variation in public attitudes toward private employer involvement in health care, explore possible causal pathways, and offer some preliminary empirical tests of these hypotheses. There are different levels of public support for the notion of employer obligation involving medical care, long-term care, and the treatment of substance abuse. Our evidence suggests that lessons about the performance of institutions in each of these policy domains represent the most important effect of existing policy on public attitudes. Furthermore, these differences correspond to what one would expect based on our model of policy feedback and cannot be explained by other plausible sources of policy legitimacy.

Does Policy Adoption Change Opinions on Minority Rights? The Effects of Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage

“…Panel survey data of attitudes toward gays and lesbians found that respondents in states with popular votes to ban same-sex marriage had more negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians after the policy was passed than before (Donovan and Tolbert 2013). Gusmano, Schlesinger, and Thomas (2002) identify three possible mechanisms for policy feedback: exposure, experience, and signaling. Exposure is defined as "the longer citizens interact with a particular policy or institution, the more 'comfortable' they become" (Gusmano, Schlesinger, and Thomas 2002, 735).…”

The Politics of Public Health Policy

“…The problems of the uninsured are easier to neglect when citizens and policy makers endorse competing images of access to health care as a societal right, a community responsibility, a perk of a good job, a professional obligation, or a market commodity (55,63,161,163,181).…”

Learning from Schools: School Choice, Political Learning, and Policy Feedback

“…Once enacted, policies can affect a variety of different actors. Studies in the policy feedback literature often focus on elites and organized interests (Hacker, ; Karch, ; Skocpol, ) or mass public opinion (Gusmano, Schlesinger, & Thomas, ; Hetling, McDermott, & Mapps, ; Soss & Schram, ; Wlezien, ). While previous research demonstrates the macro‐level effects of public policies, I am interested in the effects of these programs on program participants.…”