Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T16:25:19.635Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

DID KATRINA RECALIBRATE ATTITUDES TOWARD POVERTY AND INEQUALITY?: A Test of the “Dirty Little Secret” Hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2006

David B. Grusky  and
Emily Ryo
David B. Grusky
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Stanford University
Emily Ryo
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Stanford University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We test the popular claim that poverty and inequality were “dirty little secrets” until the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina exposed them to a wider public. If this account were on the mark, it would suggest that the absence of major antipoverty initiatives in the United States is partly attributable to public ignorance and apathy coupled with the narrowly rational decision on the part of policymakers to attend to other issues about which the public evidently cares more. Using the 2004 Maxwell Poll, we find strikingly high levels of awareness and activism on poverty and inequality issues even prior to Katrina, clearly belying the “dirty little secret” account. The follow-up Maxwell Poll, which was administered in 2005 immediately after Katrina, revealed only a slight increase in public awareness of poverty and inequality. The Katrina effect was evidently dampened because (1) the large number of preexisting poverty activists reduced the size of the residual population “at risk” for conversion to antipoverty activism, and (2) the remaining non-activists were ardently opposed to poverty activism and hence unlikely to be receptive to the liberal message coming out of Katrina.

Keywords

PovertyInequalityAttitudesLatent ClassesHurricane Katrina
Type
STATE OF THE DISCIPLINE
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 59 - 82
Copyright
© 2006 W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We are grateful to Alasdair Roberts and Jeff Stonecash for so graciously allowing us advance access to data from the 2005 Maxwell Poll on Civic Engagement and Inequality. We are also grateful to Michael Hout, Jeff Manza, and Leslie McCall for providing unusually detailed and helpful comments. The research reported here was financed in part with Stanford University funds, but as always we remain responsible for any errors that remain.

References

REFERENCES

Alesina, Alberto, Edward Glaeser, and Bruce Sacerdote (2001). Why Doesn't the United States Have a European-Style Welfare State? Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2: 187–277.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Rafael Di Tella, and Robert MacCulloch (2002). Inequality and Happiness: Are Europeans and Americans Different? Working Paper 02-84, Harvard Business School.
Almond, Gabriel (1950). The American People and Foreign Policy. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company.
Arrow, Kenneth (1963). Social Choice and Individual Values. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Baltimore Sun (2005a). Disaster Brings Race, Class to Forefront. September 3, 7A.
Baltimore Sun (2005b). Influx of Evacuees Raises Tensions in Baton Rouge: Katrina's Wake. September 15, p. 1A.
Bartels, Larry M. (2005). Homer Gets a Tax Cut: Inequality and Public Policy in the American Mind. Perspectives on Politics, 3: 15–31.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (2005). Katrina Returns the Poor of Inner City to Forefront. September 6, A3.
Boudon, Raymond (2001). The Origin of Values: Sociology and Philosophy of Beliefs. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers.
Bowman, Karlyn H. (2000). No Din over Dollar Divide. Chicago Sun-Times, July 31, p. 31.
Brooks, David (2006). Dollars and Sense. New York Times, January 26, A23.
Bullock, Heather, Wendy R. Williams, and Wendy W. Limbert (2003). Predicting Support for Welfare Policies: The Impact of Attributions and Beliefs about Inequality. Journal of Poverty, 7: 35–55.Google Scholar
Business Week Online (2005). Poverty: The Crisis Katrina Revealed. September 27. 〈http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/sep2005/nf20050927_0544_db013.htm〉 (accessed February 7, 2006).
Card, David and John E. DiNardo (2002). Skill-biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles. Journal of Labor Economics, 20: 733–783.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. (1964). The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics. In David E. Apter (Ed.), Ideology and Discontent, pp. 206–261. New York: Free Press.
Denver Post (2005). U.S. Poverty Exposed by Katrina. September 11, E6.
Downs, Anthony (1957). An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row Publishers.
Draut, Tammy (2002). New Opportunities? Public Opinion on Poverty, Income Inequality and Public Policy: 1996–2001. New York: Demos.
Esping-Andersen, Gøsta (2001). Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies. In David B. Grusky (Ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective, pp. 830–845. Boulder: Westview Press.
Feagin, Joe R. (1975). Subordinating the Poor: Welfare and American Beliefs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Gamson, William A. (1992). The Social Psychology of Collective Action. In A. D. Morris and C. McClurg Mueller (Eds.), Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, pp. 53–76. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Gitlin, Todd (1980). The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Hochschild, Jennifer L. (1981). What's Fair? American Beliefs about Distributive Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Iyengar, Shanto (1991). Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Kelley, Jonathan and M. D. R. Evans (2001). The Legitimation of Inequality: Occupational Earnings in Nine Nations. American Journal of Sociology, 99: 75–125.Google Scholar
Kluegel, James R. and Eliot R. Smith (1986). Beliefs About Inequality: Americans' Views of What Is and What Ought to Be. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Ladd, Everett Carl and Karlyn H. Bowman (1998). Attitudes Toward Economic Inequality. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
Lippman, Walter (1922 [1991]). Public Opinion. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Los Angeles Times (2005). Katrina's Aftermath: Floodwaters Lift Poverty Debate into Political Focus. September 13, p. 1.
Lukács, Georg (1923 [1967]). History and Class Consciousness. London: Merlin Press.
Mann, Michael (1973). Consciousness and Action Among the Western Working Class. London: Macmillan.
Manza, Jeff and Fay Lomax Cook (2001). Policy Responsiveness to Public Opinion: The State of the Debate. Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University. 〈http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/publications/papers/wp0106.pdf〉 (accessed May 24, 2006).
Massey, Douglas S. (2005). Return of the “L” Word: A Liberal Vision for the New Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
McCall, Leslie (2003). Do They Know and Do They Care? Americans' Awareness of Rising Inequality. Working Paper, Departments of Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers University. 〈http://www.princeton.edu/~csdp/events/pdfs/mccall.pdf〉 (accessed May 24, 2006).
McCall, Leslie and Julian Brash (2004). What Do Americans Think About Inequality? An Analysis of Polls and Media Coverage of Income Inequality. New York: Demos.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2005). Poverty a Storm that Batters the Poor Every Day. September 11, p. 4.
New York Times (2005a). The Disaster Behind Disaster: Poverty. September 18, p. 5.
New York Times (2005b). Giving: Aftermaths. November 14, F1.
Newsday (2005). Storms Shine a Light on Poverty. October 2, A6.
News Tribune (2005). Poverty a Silent Scourge No More. September 18, A1.
O'Connor, Derry (2004). Public Opinion, Rational Choice and the New Institutionalism: Rational Choice as a Critical Theory of the Link Between Public Opinion and Public Policy. Working Paper, Université Laval. 〈http://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2004/OConnor,%20Derry.pdf〉 (accessed May 24, 2006).
Pew Research Center (2005a). Two-in-Three Critical of Bush's Relief Efforts. 〈http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=255〉 (accessed February 5, 2006).
Pew Research Center (2005b). Katrina Relief Effort Raises Concern Over Excessive Spending, Waste. 〈http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=260〉 (accessed February 5, 2006).
Riker, William (1982). Liberalism Against Populism: A Confrontation Between the Theory of Social Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice. San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman.
Roberts, Alasdair (2004). Maxwell Poll on Civic Engagement and Inequality (2004). New York: Syracuse University.
Roberts, Alasdair (2005). Maxwell Poll on Civic Engagement and Inequality (2005). New York: Syracuse University.
Sacramento Bee (2005). Katrina Crisis Renews Focus on U.S. Poverty. September 18, A21.
Samuelson, Robert J. (2001). Indifferent to Inequality? Newsweek, May 7, p. 45.
San Diego Union-Tribune (2005). Dirty Little Secret: Disaster Laid Bare the Prevalence of Poverty in America. September 18, E1.
San Francisco Chronicle (2005). Catastrophe Shows Us Two Americas. September 5, B1.
Scheufele, Dietram A. (1999). Framing as a Theory of Media Effects. Journal of Communication, 49: 103–122.Google Scholar
Schiff, Frederick (1994). Deconstructing “Attitude Structure” in Public Opinion Studies. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 11: 287–297.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (2005). Historical Poverty Tables. 〈http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/histpov/hstpov7.html〉 (accessed January 30, 2006).
USA Today (2005). Hurricane Exposes Issues of Class, Race. September 2, 20A.
Vermunt, Jeroen K. and Jay Magidson (2005). Technical Guide for Latent Gold 4.0: Basic and Advanced. Belmont, MA: Statistical Innovations, Inc.
Wagner, Joseph (1990). Rational Constraint in Mass Belief Systems: The Role of Developmental Moral Stages in the Structure of Political Beliefs. Political Psychology, 11: 147–171.Google Scholar