Civil Liberties and the American Public

Abstract

Important new survey findings show the American public's restrictive approach to the First Amendment rights of people who express deviant views to be moderating over the last two decades. This mellowing is backed up by parallel findings of major liberalizing of the consensus in other areas, notably equality and sexual freedom. Liberalization has been limited in such areas as criminal justice and separation of church and state. Post‐McCarthy and post‐Watergate developments are credited, along with educational progress, with much of the advance. Reduced value consensus and a growing sense of self‐interest in civil liberties seem to have contributed to the trends in support of civil liberties.