Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Political Issues

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    Iran a Growing Danger, Bush Gaining on Spy Issue

    Summary of Findings Public concern over Iran’s nuclear program has risen dramatically in the past few months. Today, 27% of Americans cite Iran as the country that represents the greatest danger to the United States. In October, just 9% pointed to Iran as the biggest danger to the U.S., while there was far more concern […]

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    Bush’s Concern Over Isolationism Reflects More Than Just Rhetoric

    When President Bush delivered a strong warning against isolationism in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, he was speaking to a recent and dramatic turn in public opinion. A recent Pew Research survey found a decided revival of isolationist sentiment among the public, to levels not seen since post-Cold War 1990s and the post-Vietnam 1970s. […]

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    About the Survey

    Results for this survey are based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International among a nationwide sample of 1,503 adults, 18 years of age or older, from January 4-8, 2006. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling […]

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    Public Unmoved by Washington’s Rhetoric on Iraq

    Summary of Findings The political debate over the Iraq war has grown more pointed in recent weeks, as President Bush has embarked upon a series of high-profile speeches defending the war and Democratic Rep. John Murtha has made headlines with his calls for a withdrawal of U.S. forces. But fundamental public attitudes toward the war […]

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    100th Anniversary of Secularism in France

    Introduction December 9, 2005, marks the 100th anniversary of secularism in France, known as “laïcité.” In 1905 the French government passed a law stipulating “the separation of churches and the state,” thus enshrining secularism as a national principle. The law, which barred the state from officially recognizing, funding or endorsing religious groups, represented a major […]

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    The Biology Wars: The Religion, Science and Education Controversy

    Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Florida, in December 2005 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Conference speaker Edward J. Larson, Talmadge Chair of Law and Russell Professor of American History at the University of Georgia, discussed the history of […]

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    Judicial Faith? Ideology, Religion and the Rule of Law: A Conversation with Noah Feldman

    Pew Research Center Washington, D.C. Just weeks before the Senate confirmation hearings of Judge Samuel A. Alito, President Bush’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, the Forum held a discussion for journalists and other policy leaders on the role of religion in the judicial confirmation process. The discussion featured Noah Feldman, a law professor at […]