blog




  • Essay / A Critique of Racial Attitudes and Opposition to Welfare, an article by Martin Gilen

    In “Racial Attitudes and Opposition to Welfare” by Martin Gilen, a multidimensional study including survey data, Regression analysis and covariance structure analysis is used to identify both the presence and magnitude of racial attitudes in shaping white Americans' fierce opposition to social programs. Gilen provides an in-depth analysis of the existing literature, acknowledging both past successes and failures. When discussing his own research, Gilen clearly describes its scope and purpose in addition to giving the reader a clear description of the methodology and results. Gilen's work undoubtedly uses current literature, new methodology, and interrelated findings to provide the reader with an incontrovertible description of the role that racial attitudes play in constructing opposing views of well-being. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In his introduction, Gilen provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of the current literature. Acknowledging past research failures, Gilen notes that "scientists in the past have been slow to examine the implications of racial attitudes outside the realm of racial politics per se" (Gilen, 1995, p. 994). Previous research shows that Americans generally without question support welfare programs that citizens pay into throughout their lives, such as Social Security. When it comes to so-called “gifts,” white public opinion is far from satisfactory. Gilen connects past efforts to interpret Americans' views on welfare via the role of economic self-interest and individualism. For more than 30 years, it has been said that "this 'primitive self-interest' alone" could provide the best explanation for trends in welfare designs. Individualism, which is at the heart of American society, has been shown to be an important factor in defining well-being. This belief originated with Tocqueville and continued until the late 1900s. In his final statements about previous research, Gilen focuses on the pitfalls. He notes that "racial attitudes have been almost completely neglected in analyzes of Americans' views on welfare" (996). While two authors, Kleugal and Smith, attempted to examine welfare support by associating egalitarianism, self-interest, and individualism with racial attitudes, they acknowledged their failure in that their elements of racial attitudes created a low index. Gilen uses the lack of research in this particular area to define the scope of his work. It aims not only to “show the importance of racial attitudes” but also to clearly identify the “racial views most responsible for opposition to welfare” in America (997). Gilen's study was conducted using data from the 1986 National Election Study (NES). ). He chose the year carefully, stating that "the 1986 NES Survey contains both a wider range of questions on racial attitudes and a greater number of items tapping individualism than more recent surveys." (997). He clearly describes the NES's questions and how they relate to his own, noting that the study does not explicitly ask about social spending in general, but rather whether programs should be increased, decreased, or left unchanged. This concise explanation of the.