Aufsatz(gedruckt)1996

What Is Public Opinion?

In: Critical review: an interdisciplinary journal of politics and society, Band 10, Heft 1, S. 95-105

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Abstract

A review essay on books by (1) James A. Stimson, Public Opinion in America: Moods, Cycles, and Swings (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991); Benjamin Page & Robert Y. Shapiro, The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in American Policy Preferences (Chicago, IL: U of Chicago Press, 1992); & (3) William G. Mayer, The Changing American Mind: How and Why American Public Opinion Changed between 1960 and 1988 (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press, 1992). Despite recent claims to the contrary, these three books claim that US public opinion (PO) is comprehensible, if not always rational & informed. Stimson draws on a broad range of PO polls conducted 1956-1989 to develop a measure of the general public mood, & concludes that a single public mood does not exist, & attitudes toward specific issues such as gun control, racism, & abortion may change independently of each other. Page & Shapiro examine PO between 1930 & 1990, & suggest that the public responds to new events & social conditions in a rational & consistent manner. Mayer focuses on a narrower time frame (1960-1988) & places a greater emphasis on explanations for shifts in PO. It is suggested that PO may be fairly stable, & that statistical shifts are the result of backlash against policy changes, rather than ideological transformations. Ways that elite perceptions of PO shape public policy are discussed. 8 References. Adapted from the source document.

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