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This paper develops the concept of a counter-culture--a semi-organized culture which examines and challenges many political and non-political features of the dominant culture. According to survey data gathered by both UCLA and Berkeley, "membership" in the counter-culture may partly explain student activism; and the differential growth of the counter-cultures at UCLA and Berkeley may partly explain the differential growth of activism at the two campuses. This paper briefly discusses the limitations of a counter-culture explanation of activism and the implications of such an explanation for methodology. It is suggested that interaction patterns of activists and non-activists should be examined and that other methodological techniques of social movement theory should be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major weakness in many treatments of the models, historical or contemporary, which delineate the preferred goals of interethnic and interracial adjustment in America has been the omission of separatist models. This paper focuses on certain extreme separatist models proposed in regard to black-white adjustment, first by examining the historical background, then by re-analyzing recent survey data to assess the extent to which rank-and-file white and black Americans support separatist solutions. Demographic and attitudinal correlates of separatism are also systematically examined. In the light of the surprisingly strong white support for separatism found in the survey data, the conclusion raises some questions about Parsons' view of the ongoing inclusion process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the editorial and literary works of Vladimir Mayakovsky. It offers factual data and documents that contain brief commentaries on relevant issues of Mayakovsky's time. Mayakovsky wrote literary theories and in 1918, as an aftermath of the dissolution of the Lef party and his entry into the Association of Proletarian Writers, he was considered one of the greatest Russian poets. It offers details on his involvement with the Futurism movement in Russia. Some of Mayakovsky's poems include ∣Left March,∣Stunning Facts∣ and ∣Order to the Army of Art.∣

The article discusses the writings of Osip Brik which ranged on Russian Futurism, formalism, literary journalism, criticism, opera libretti, theatre adaptations of classic Russian novels and film scenarios. It offers information on his personal background and career highlights. The article also discusses Brik's involvement and contributions to the Futurist movement, Lef party and editorial stint in ∣Art of the Commune∣ in Russia. It also presents Brik's views on art-related issues such as the proletarian art being compared with the bourgeoisie art and his condemnation of easel painting believing that this form of painting is timeless and non-utilitarian.

This study reports on long-range consequences of student political activism. Three groups were selected: (1) former civil rights activists, (2) student government members, and (3) apolitical undergraduates. It was hypothesized that variation in political activism would be linked with differing occupations and political orientations. Former civil rights activists are heavily concentrated in the knowledge and human service occupations and are politically radical to liberal in their attitudes and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an analysis of the impact of mass media on the political attitudes and behavior of the members of Birch Society and the Americans for Democratic Action, both political activists. Examination of the magazine subscription pattern of members; Rate of magazine subscription; Categories of magazines.

This article focuses on a paradox in the findings of public opinion research that those individuals who shift their political position from one election to another frequently have less information about the political situation and the issues than persons whose attitudes and positions remain relatively unchanged. The low level of public information about politics has been documented with monotony ever since sample survey techniques developed several decades ago. While most of the major investigations of voting behavior have converged on this finding in one vocabulary or another, the evidence mustered in support has not been striking. Of course any data would be disillusioning if one imagines that an electorate is definitively split into two portions, one made up of fairly informed voters who never shift parties, and the other of uninformed voters who account for any electoral change. Belief in the broad hypothesis has been stronger than actual evidence might warrant in part because of obvious measurement problems, all of which act in the direction of weakening positive results.

This article focuses on a study on the change in political behavior of American college students. Bennington study continues as the benchmark for the study of political socialization in college. The impact of the small liberal political environment upon students from wealthy and politically conservative families was noted by Newcomb. Newcomb also noted student types who did not perceive politics as an important means of socialization. They were seemingly unaware of the political norms of the groups around them. For them, politics was seen as neither relevant nor meaningful. Students with firmly held beliefs, on the other hand, resisted group influences, and in some cases were characterized by perception biases that operated to distort the values of the group. In this sense, political socialization was dysfunctional. In some cases, the group adjusted to the individual because of his value to the organization at that particular time. There was significant and progressive change from conservatism to liberalism as the student proceeded through college.

The three articles in this section concern factors and types of involvement in that uniquely intense American communication experience known as a political campaign. Some propositions have been developed about the sense of civic responsibility and efficacy (and their correlates), and about the social situation of minorities, political participation, and leadership. Note that these articles reach divergent (though not irreconcilable) conclusions about the conditions of party identification. Widespread interest has been focused on the political impact of the new medium of television. Kurt Lang and Gladys Engel Lang cast doubt on the popular conception of a television personality who comes across to the viewer by sheer personal qualities. They note the impact of context and expectations on what the audience takes from the picture, a conclusion touching closely on points made in the other articles, which also stress the impact of expectations on reactions to messages received. It has been tried to distinguish among a number of ways in which the appearance of a public figure may be experienced over television. Beyond this, the process by which and the extent to which such imagery is translated into politically meaningful activity needs to be investigated.

American communists were active at different times on each side of the long controversy over foreign policy, operating for the most part through various front organizations. In spite of great confusion of numbers, a pattern of operation common to almost all of these pressure groups appeared. The amazing extent of the pressure group activity has been proof that the foreign policy is democratically controlled. Out of the profusion of active groups in the U.S., a distinction between non-interventionist and interventionist obviously can be made. It may be less apparent that among these non-interventionists a division separated those motivated by pacifism from the narrow isolationists. When the war in Europe entered its second year, leadership in the struggle for non-intervention passed to newly formed isolationist groups. Opposing these pacifists and isolationists stood the Committee to Defend America and the Fight for Freedom Committee which continued to maintain separate national organizations.

This article discusses factors that determine the Congressional voting behavior on the repeal of the embargo provisions of the Neutrality Act in the U.S. Voting behavior typically represents only the end product in an involved process which throughout is exposed to a variety of influences. The importance of a continuing assessment of the influences which determine a legislator's votes should not be underestimated. Such factors constitute the real dynamics of the political process and may be viewed profitably in terms of the effects they produce as well as in the circumstances attending their inception. This is the problem which is investigated here. The article talks about the special session of September 1939. A glimpse is given over the field of both voting behavior and the mail. One is driven to the conclusion that basically the mail was a sincere and accurate picture of how the letter-writing electorate felt about the lifting of the embargo. Those who wrote did not want the embargo lifted, basically because they thought it would lead to war, but likewise because they were not certain that all the blame lay on one side, and because they feared the effects, economic, political and moral, of a war boom. It is true that they did not seem to grasp that there was no necessary sequential order in the two phenomena of lifting the embargo and war. As usual, national origins apparently played some part in determining their attitudes. By and large the more wealthy and educated classes were relatively more favorably disposed toward lifting the embargo, but even within these classes, there were numbered more supporters of retention than repeal.