Praeger Modern American Capitalism: Understanding Public Attitudes and Perceptions

Peterson, Albaum, and Kozmetsky have systematically and formally documented here the American public's understanding of, attitudes toward, and perceptions regarding capitalism in the 1980s, and in so doing, have provided the first book to focus expressly on capitalism through empirical survey research. This work is based on a decade of empirical investigations and attempts to provide an accurate perspective that is devoid of the authors' personal views. The data for the studies reported in the book were derived from questionnaires administered to more than 10,000 individuals--comprising national samples of the general public, newspaper editors, and college students. Information was collected by telephone or mail interviews, and participants were queried about various facets of capitalism. In analyzing the data, the authors have integrated disparate research to provide a comprehensive portrait of the public's view of capitalism at the beginning and the end of the 1980s. Following an introductory chapter, the presentation of their findings falls into four primary subject areas: defining capitalism, attitudes toward capitalism, perceptions of capitalism and business, and changes in attitudes toward capitalism. A final chapter summarizes the conclusions. In identifying a heretofore unknown public mind-set, this study will be a valuable reference tool for courses and professionals in corporate communications, management, and business and government, as well as an important addition to public and academic libraries. Review ?Although there are many volumes of public opinion surveys, this one is unique in both its strong ideological orientation and its narrowness of focus. The authors address the issue of how people define capitalism and its correlates--free enterprise, private enterprise, and American enterprise. They also explore how these correlates are perceived in terms of a number of positive normative characteristics (e.g., promotes innovation, results in greater equity). There is a detailed analysis of attitudes toward capitalism on the basis of sex, income, and age, and of changes in attitudes during the 1980s decade of relatively unfettered free enterprise (on the whole, attitudes became more negative in the 1980s). The data are useful for journalistic purposes, but the book makes no great contribution to economic knowledge, either of a primary or secondary nature. Of limited usefulness in larger collections, especially collections on free enterprise.?-Choice "Although there are many volumes of public opinion surveys, this one is unique in both its strong ideological orientation and its narrowness of focus. The authors address the issue of how people define capitalism and its correlates--free enterprise, private enterprise, and American enterprise. They also explore how these correlates are perceived in terms of a number of positive normative characteristics (e.g., promotes innovation, results in greater equity). There is a detailed analysis of attitudes toward capitalism on the basis of sex, income, and age, and of changes in attitudes during the 1980s decade of relatively unfettered free enterprise (on the whole, attitudes became more negative in the 1980s). The data are useful for journalistic purposes, but the book makes no great contribution to economic knowledge, either of a primary or secondary nature. Of limited usefulness in larger collections, especially collections on free enterprise."-Choice About the Author ROBERT A. PETERSON holds the John T. Stuart, III Centennial Chair in Business Administration at the University of Texas at Austin and is the Charles Hurwit fellow of the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published more than 150 books and articles and is a former editor of The Journal of Marketing Research. GERALD ALBAUM is Professor of Marketing at the University of Oregon and Senior Research Fellow at the IC2 Institute, the University of Texas at Aust