caa a22 4500 386341230 CHVBK 20180307111751.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198909 xx s 000 0 eng 10.2307/1962059 doi S0003055400085968 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.2307/1962059 Republican Schoolmaster: The U.S. Supreme Court, Public Opinion, and Abortion [Elektronische Daten] The United States Supreme Court has a historical role as a "republican schoolmaster,” inculcating virtues in the citizenry. The role as teacher to the republic also serves the interests of the Court. As the "weakest branch,” the Supreme Court needs public support if its decisions are to be effective. We investigate the Court's ability to win popular support for its rulings, specifically in the case of Roe v. Wade. The analysis shows that the Court's decision did affect public attitudes but not as previous work would predict. While support for abortions to protect health increased as a result of the Court's decision, the public became more polarized over "discretionary” abortions. The puzzle is what process can account for these disparate reactions. We develop a theory resting on interpersonal influences to explain these results, arguing that the social interpretation of events drives the differing outcomes. This theory is then tested against a purely psychological alternative. The closing discussion considers how these results can be extended to the general problem of public decisions and popular responses, including presidential actions and the influence of the media. Copyright © American Political Science Association 1989 Franklin Charles H. Washington University Kosaki Liane C. Washington University American Political Science Review Cambridge University Press 83/3(1989-09), 751-771 0003-0554 83:3<751 1989 83 PSR https://doi.org/10.2307/1962059 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.2307/1962059 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Franklin Charles H. Washington University NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kosaki Liane C. Washington University NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- American Political Science Review Cambridge University Press 83/3(1989-09), 751-771 0003-0554 83:3<751 1989 83 PSR CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge