Abstract
The aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon has seen a resurgence of sociologically informed writings on terrorism and counterterrorism, especially as these relate to the violation of human and civil rights principles. Most of this work has focused on understanding the terrorists themselves or the role of states and policymakers in fighting terrorism. In their new book, Whose Rights?: Counterterrorism and the Dark Side of American Public Opinion, Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza offer an alternative framework for looking at counterterrorism, one that focuses on public opinion. According to the authors, mass opinion is a force to be reckoned with, as “[u]nderstanding the politics of the war on terror without mass opinion may be akin to envisioning a contemporary production of Shakespeare without the possibility of an audience to which theatrical performers play” (p. 155). Neglecting public opinion, they argue, leads to an oversight of one of the most important factors that shape and affect counterterrorist policy decisions.
The book seeks to understand whether and how public support for counterterrorist policies in the United States has changed over the last decade. It focuses on a critical period, between 2007 and 2010. With the rise of Barack Obama into presidency, many expected that American public opinion would move away from supporting the Bush-era counterterrorist policies. However, national telephone surveys conducted by the authors in 2007, 2009, and 2010 show no real decline in support for counterterrorist policies after 2008. This stable support for counterterrorism (including for clearly repressive policies), even after the election of Obama, is probably the most dramatic finding of the book. In fact, it seems that the election of Obama only served to further legitimize some policies, such as torture. Brooks and Manza argue that this demonstrates a “dark side” of American public opinion: despite the tradition of strong support for human rights and civil liberties, Americans are willing to tolerate and even encourage illiberal policies when faced with real or even hypothetical threats.
Following a concise and efficient introduction, the first two chapters of the book outline the historical developments in American public opinion regarding counter-subversion and civil rights, and the importance of following mass opinions. While these chapters are informative, they could have been more concise, as they hinder somewhat the flow of the main argument. Chapters Three through Six constitute the heart of the book, where the authors present the main findings coming from their surveys. Beyond the general trend, showing no significant decline in support for counterterrorist policies even after the election of Obama, a number of other interesting findings emerge when examining support for particular policies. Most interestingly, some policies, such as waterboarding and torture, consistently receive substantially lower levels of public support. More generally, it seems that covert operations receive less support than ones that are sanctioned by formal legislation, suggesting that public views often adjust themselves to formally declared state policies.
The main strength of the book lies in Brooks and Manza’s skillful use of survey data. Using a mix of regression models and experimental surveys they are able to explicate the main factors that influence public opinion. Most notably, they highlight the importance of three main factors: education, priming, and target groups. With respect to education, they find that it plays a major role, as survey respondents with higher levels of education are clearly less likely to exhibit prejudice and support repressive policies. Priming is also important: telling survey respondents about past attacks, and even more reminding them of the danger of future (hypothetical) attacks, increases support for counterterrorist policies. Finally, naming the group affiliation of the individuals targeted or affected by certain counterterrorist policies also matters. Not surprisingly, references to Muslims and those coming from a Middle Eastern background elicit particularly negative attitudes, and support for counterterrorist policies that target them is higher. Yet beyond that, American citizenship and nationality serve as powerful cues, as support for measures that target non-Americans is higher than support for measures targeting Americans of all ethnicities and origins.
Despite these important and enlightening findings, the book is not without faults. First, the theoretical frame seems somewhat disjointed. While the authors make a number of smaller theoretical contributions (for example, to target group theory and to the polity feedback literature), the book lacks a major coherent theoretical frame that would lead it throughout. This shortfall is even more noticeable given the fact that many of the main findings, while revealing, are not that surprising to scholars who specialize in terrorism and counterterrorism. A second weaker point is a lack of sufficient discussion of the particular features and uniqueness of terrorist acts and threats. Brooks and Manza rightfully note that the risk of dying from terrorist acts is much lower than the risk of dying from domestic homicide, traffic accidents, or cancer. However, they fail to consider fully why it is that terrorism still elicits such a substantial sense of threat for so many. Is this only the result of conservative media scare tactics and the spread of moral panic? While these tell some of the story, there also seems to be something unique about terrorism, its psychological effects, and the ways in which people perceive terrorist threats. Without addressing this uniqueness, it may be hard to comprehend fully the consistency and durability of public support for policies that violate civil rights.
Despite these drawbacks, Whose Rights? makes an important contribution to the literatures on counterterrorism and mass opinion. Although the effects of public opinion on actual policies cannot be systematically examined when looking at such a limited period, it is important to examine the ways in which mass opinion can be influenced and manipulated. The book is well written, compelling, and brings revealing insights into the processes of threat priming and target groups. Brooks and Manza use innovative methodologies to explore the underlying sources of public attitudes toward counterterrorism, and provide a more informative and detailed account of these sources than any previous work in the field.