LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Dr. Frank Rusciano of Lawrenceville, professor of political science and department chair at Rider University, has written the first book-length treatment of world opinion and its effect on globalization.

Entitled World Opinion and the Emerging International Order and published by Praeger Publishers of Westport, CT, the book examines the meaning, influence, and structure of world opinion and explores the ramifications of a new reference group, which he calls the global public.

"Because of the potential scope and reach of this public, its potential effects range from changes in individual identity to adjustments in behavior of nations," Rusciano said. "All of these changes are prompted by a process of attitudinal and identity formation -- a world opinion -- that defines the international public."

The book begins by analyzing the construction of individual identity and then describes the influence of opinion processes upon this construction at all levels, including familial, religious, national, and ethnic.

Other chapter topics include: the effects of a global public on the construction of individual identity and the role of world opinion in this process; the effects of world opinion upon nations' behavior in times of crisis; the role world opinion plays in the construction of national identity and the resurgence of nationalism in the post-Cold War era; the relationship between world opinion and the global market; the appearance of an imagined international community in the post-Cold War era based on the concept of world opinion; and the effects of world opinion on history.

Specific chapters were co-written with Roberta Fiske-Rusciano, adjunct assistant professor of political science at Rider; Dr. Bosah Ebo, professor of communication at Rider; Dr. Sigfredo Hernandez, associate professor of marketing at Rider, and Dr. John Crothers Pollock, associate professor of communication studies at The College of New Jersey.

A member of Rider's political science faculty since 1982, Frank Rusciano is also the author of a 1989 book entitled Isolation and Paradox: Defining "the Public" in Modern Political Analysis and the author of several professional articles and papers. He became department chair in September, 1998.

Among his scholarly activities and citations is his selection as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, which allowed him to study public opinion processes in Germany at the Allensach Institut für Demoskopie and the Institut für Publizistik of the University of Mainz during the 1985-86 academic year and again in 1987 and 1995.

Rusciano specializes in the teaching of American politics, public opinion, survey technique and analysis, and political communication, including specific courses in public opinion, methods of political analysis, political parties and electoral behavior, and the American presidency.

He received his B.A. degree in government and English literature from Cornell University, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa and a magna cum laude graduate. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago.

Rider's department of political science is committed to the principle that students should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences. Within this context, the department seeks to provide its students with a comprehensive understanding of politics and the political world, including the relationships of influence and power that exist in societies, the nature and operation of governments, and the consequences of governmental decisions. The curriculum emphasizes the vital interrelationship between theory and practice to provide the student with the analytical and factual bases necessary to think clearly and critically about politics and the political world.