Surveys of American Public Culture
The State of Disunion—1996
Principal Investigators: James Davison Hunter and Carl Desportes Bowman
Sampling and Fieldwork by the Gallup Organization, Inc.
The purpose of the 1996 Survey of American Political Culture was to assess the reality behind popular depictions of the declining legitimacy of American institutions and cultural fragmentation. Toward this end, a comprehensive questionnaire explores connections between political opinions and the cultural contexts within which they are formed. Topics include: the “Christian Right,” homosexuality, identity politics, visions of America's future, moral relativism, the role of government, political ideology, religious beliefs and activities, and a variety of lifestyle questions. What distinguishes this survey is its breadth and depth of coverage, both of which lend nuance to its findings. It was based upon over 2,000 face-to-face interviews and its summary report, The State of Disunion, is widely cited in publications and on the Internet.
Full survey details and data on ARDA (this link will navigate you away from www.iasc-culture.org)
Survey Report (download full report)
- Politics and Political Culture: The Critical Difference
- Part I: America at Century’s End
- Part II: The Government
- Part III: America’s Governing Elite
- Part IV: Citizenship
- Part V: Epilogue
- Endnotes
- Demographic Profile
- Questionnaire
- Summary Tables
Citation: James Davison Hunter and Carl Desportes Bowman, The State of Disunion: Survey of American Public Culture (Charlottesville, Va: Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia, 1996).
Who We Are
The Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture is an interdisciplinary research center and intellectual community at the University of Virginia committed to understanding contemporary cultural change and its individual and social consequences, training young scholars, and providing intellectual leadership in service to the public good.
