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Traditional political analysis assumes that policy attitudes of the US public are influenced more by personal self-interest than values or ideology. A symbolic politics approach holds that policy preferences are more the result of the residues of early political & value socialization, especially when the policies are linked to racial or ethnic groups. Here, the relative strengths of these approaches are tested in the context of the controversy over busing for school desegregation in Louisville, Ky. Regression analysis of structured interviews of a random sample of Louisville adults (N = 879 whites, 170 blacks) found that measures of self-interest (having a child in the public schools, having a child bused, having strong ties to the neighborhood) were ralated only weakly & consistently to antibusing attitudes, whereas measures of radical attitudes (old fashioned & modern racism) were strong & consistent correlates of opposition to busing: the more prejudiced, the more opposed. The implications of these findings for school desegregation policy are discussed. 6 Tables, 1 Appendix. HA.

104 S's of apparently Italian descent in New Haven who were registered voters were interviewed by 8 experimenters. They were asked to give their preference among a number of real & imagined candidates seeking political office. The purpose was to determine whether preelection interviewing stimulates voting among the least stimulated voters. The results show that being interviewed in a PO survey does increase the probability that the R would vote in the following election. 1 Table. S. Karganovic.

In recent years as public opinion polls have shown a decline in racist responses, white Americans have strongly resisted school desegregation and affirmative action programs. Hence, there has been a debate over the extent to which racism has really declined. The theory of modern racism addresses these issues, distinguishing between old-fashioned racial beliefs recognized by everyone as racism and a new set of beliefs arising from the conflicts of the civil rights movement. The theory proposes that antiblack feeling remains high and has been displaced from the socially undesirable old-fashioned beliefs onto the new beliefs where the racism is not recognized. Three experiments were performed; results showed that, regardless of context, the old-fashioned items were perceived as more likely to reveal prejudice. The results are discussed in terms of their significance for opinion polling and continuing racial conflict in America.