U.S. foreign economic policy is moving away from the neoliberal consensus that dominated the early post-Cold War decades. What will replace the earlier consensus is still up for debate. This uncertainty offers an opportunity to reconsider the engagement of domestic publics, especially underrepresented communities, who may question how—if at all—new policy visions pertain to them.

Too few analyses are sufficiently representative of American society. Many privilege the loud voices in relevant political debates. This project investigates how people from different economic and social classes, different communities, and intersecting social identities experience global economic affairs. It seeks to answer three broad questions:

• What do Americans know about specific foreign economic policies, how these policies affect them, and how important these policies are for their economic lives?

• Who perceives the government and foreign economic policy as effective tools for societal change and why?

• How does the way in which policy initiatives are presented shape the public’s engagement with foreign economic policies as well as relations within a diverse society?

This project will conduct a series of public opinion surveys and survey experiments fielded over two years and targeting underrepresented populations as well as a representative cross-section of the U.S. population. The team will regularly disseminate findings through a series of reports and data sets. Workshops and colloquia will bring together scholars to discuss the project’s findings and implications.