Abstract
A two-part analysis of the vote in Proposition 20 from the 1972 California election was undertaken. The first part focused on relationships between sentiment in favor of this measure and of that pro or con various other propositions and contests on the same ballot that were of interest as a reflection of social, political, and environmental attitude. Analysis of these votes, based on a state-wide sample of 2,379 precincts, showed the vote on Proposition 20 to be moderately related to several other measures of a social-philosophy significance, but only to a lesser extent to the presidential vote and to another proposition involving a different environmental issue. The second part examined demographic correlates of the vote on Proposition 20, finding only a modest relationship to education and even lower correlations with income and home ownership. The findings indicate a relatively low degree of association between sentiment on an environmental conservation issue such as this one and political preference as well as socioeconomic variables, but somewhat higher correlations with other social issues and values. The results suggest that environmental concern may be more broadly distributed across different socio-economic and political strata of our society than previous investigators have asserted.