Self-Interest versus Racial Attitudes as Correlates of Anti-Busing Attitudes in Louisville: Is it The Buses or the Blacks?

Traditional political analysis assumes that policy attitudes of the American public are influenced more by personal self-interest than values or ideology. A symbolic politics approach holds that policy preferences are more the result of the residues of early political and value socialization, especially when the policies are linked to racial or ethnic groups. In this article, the relative strengths of the self-interest and symbolic politics approaches are tested in the context of the busing for school desegregation controversy in Louisville, Kentucky. Regression analysis of a random sample of Louisville adults found that measures of self-interest (having a child in the public schools, having a child bused, having strong ties to the neighborhood) were related only weakly and inconsistently to anti-busing attitudes whereas measures of racial attitudes (Old Fashioned and Modern Racism) were strong and consistent correlates of opposition to busing: the more prejudiced, the more opposed. The implications of these findings for school desegregation policy are discussed.