Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Social movement scholars recently have identified several gaps in our knowledge of phenomena such as the general public’s consciousness of movements, the ideological basis of related movements, and the role of public support and public opinion vis-à-vis social movements more generally. We attempt to address these lacunae with public opinion data from a nationally representative April 2000 Gallup poll on the level of goal agreement and perceived impact of eight progressive social movements from the 1960s’ protest cycle. Approximately three decades after the peak of this protest cycle, we find that the American public has come to largely agree with the goals of these eight movements and to see them as having had at least a moderate impact on national policies. More importantly, we find that the progressive social movement belief systems of the general public are characterized by substantial consistency. We argue that such coherence, which presumably results from the centrality of the rights master frame, justifies identification of a progressive social movement orientation—an ideological worldview about the 1960s’ protest cycle.