Public Opinion
Public opinion is an accumulation of desires, attitudes and beliefs of all the individuals who constitute what we know as ‘public’. The present day definition of public opinion started developing with the changes that took place after Industrialization and resulting Urbanization in the world, which forced a change in political and social spheres. As a result, the concept of “public” came into being. However, it would be wrong to say that the concept of public opinion is few-centuries old. In the Ancient Greece, the public rhetoric was referred as public opinion. And this idea continued though with much increased force and importance in Eighteen-Century Europe where, public discourse taking place in pubs, salons, and coffee houses formed the public opinion.
However, with the development of George Gallup’s modern polling techniques and methods, public opinion, today, mainly refers to the outcome of polling results. It is believed that the public opinion, which is the most important desires and beliefs of majority of people, is reflected through polling results. However, American sociologist Herbert Blumer disagreed with the idea. According to him individuals participate to different degree in polling activities and thus polling results cannot be used as a measure or reflection of public opinion. Sometimes, the most important people showed least interest in Polling and hence the undermining the credibility of Polling.
The role of public opinion in policy –making is questionable. It is believed that public opinion is most reflected in the policies made by the respective government. Thus public opinion plays an important part in the construction of policies. It is presumed that the democratic government by its nature is responsive to public and allows the public opinion to play an instrumental role in policy-making. Mills (1859) argues that in modern democracies “the idea of resisting the will of the public… disappears more and more from the minds of practical politicians” (p. 69). However J. Michael Hogan disagrees with the assumption and believes that public opinion doesn’t form the Policies affecting the public, in fact it is other way round. The Policy and Policy makers influence the minds of public and forms public opinion. Hogan (1994) explains “the public’s role in the policy-making process is a product, not of the actual opinions of the great mass of real people, but of the portraits of the people constructed rhetorically by the policy makers themselves” (p. 120). Mojane (1989) believes that public opinion is a part of process of argumentation that finally translates into policies.
The role of public opinion in policy making differs from policy to policy. Hogan (1994) explains that “[t] he public’s role in the policy-making process varies situationally, and we have only begun to identify the variables involved”(p.121). It has been seen that the opinion, interest and participation of public changes with nature of policy. It has also been noted that the Public opinion is more acute and pronounced in the domestic spheres. However, survey research shows that citizens are generally less informed, indifferent, and less active when it comes to foreign policy making. (Neumann, Just,& Crigler, 1992)
Cook, Barabas and Page (2002) and Paden & Page (2003) while examining the role of public opinion in domestic matters reached an unexpected result. The former concentrated on consideration given to public opinion, over a period of 10 years, in Congressional and Presidential debates over Social Security reforms while the later examined Congressional arguments over 1995 welfare reforms. It was found that very few considerations were given to public opinion and even fewer considerations were given to polls. However Hogan’s found that public opinion and public opinion polls played a decisive and critical role in nuclear freeze of 1980s and in Panama Canal Treaty (Hogan 1985).
From these findings it can be concluded that Public opinion and public opinion polls are given high regard in foreign matters but lesser referred to in domestic matters by policy –makers. In other words, politicians choose areas of policymaking where they want to consider public opinion and consequently carry out polls. It is not something that is considered in all matters as assumed to be in a democratic state. However, Walter Lippmann in his book “public opinion” (1992) argued that this “manufacture of consent” by politicians may not all be that bad, as it seems. According to him the matters of state are far more complex and intricate for common man to understand—thus he needs someone to simplify the complexities and make them comprehensible for him. He proposes to have a set of well-informed professionals who could collect and analyze data on important matters and present the conclusions to politicians who would, then, use the “art of persuasion” to inform and convince the public of matters affecting them and their surroundings and shape their opinion accordingly. This is in turn closely connected with interest groups and their influence on public opinion. It is often felt that people do not form their opinion after careful individual deliberation but normally they are heavily influenced by interest groups that determine what these people should be thinking.
It can be concluded from the discussion above, that uninfluenced, independent and impartial public opinion doesn’t exist as such and public opinion is not always given consideration in a democracy as one may assume. But on the other hand it is neither completely ignored by policy-makers nor fully affected by politicians.
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