6 - Public Opinion

Summary

Politics is about choice. So far, we have focused exclusively on matters of performance, that is, the successful provision of good times, tranquility, and clean government. But performance on matters about which all agree is only one part of the democratic experience; the polity also wants to make choices about which there is disagreement. We want to know how citizens affect such decisions.

Clearly, the democratic public's role involves more than simply evaluating how well government achieves the goals agreed upon by all – peace, prosperity, and probity. Much of politics is about choosing among goals that are not shared and, when goals are shared, choosing from conflicting choices the best path to the common goal. The public can do more than pass judgment on the size of the pie. It also has a voice in how it should be divided. These are matters of preference, and generally of conflicting preferences. Democratic elections decide whose preferences should prevail and whose should not. Those preferences – what they are, what they mean, how they arise, and how they move over time – are the focus of this chapter.

Governments choose between alternative sets of public policy. Citizens have preferences over at least some of these choices. In this chapter, we shall look at preferences in the usual way, as respondent reports in answer to questions posed in survey research. Then we will conceptualize them in longitudinal terms, as a force that flows – and can be measured – over time.