New Elites In Old States

This study of contemporary political culture examines belief systems among youth elites in five countries that share not only roughly comparable economies, social structures, and cultural environments, but also the same political tradition: Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. Based on a survey of over 3,000 senior undergraduates conducted between 1980 and 1987, it focuses on attitudes towards government, feminism, minority rights, and equality in an effort to determine whether there are significant differences in the political cultures of the five Anglo-American democracies. The youth elites studied here are part of a generation that now wields substantial economic power and that has succeeded in fundamentally altering and expanding the political agendas of all the advanced industrial democracies. Nevitte and Gibbins argue that the attitudinal structures of these youth elites have far-reaching consequences.

This book examines attitudes about equality among youth elites in Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. Using data gathered from over 8,000 undergraduates from 1982 to 1987 in these five countries, the author argues that the attitudinal structures of these youth elites has far reaching consequences for the political and economic agendas of advanced industrial democracies.