Public opinion study extends beyond measuring immediate reactions to events; it includes learning about government, trust in institutions, support for political rules, interrelations among opinions, and beliefs about political participation.
Core justification: democratic institutions should produce government decisions that reflect the views of everyday people.
Historical background on the term:
Rousseau (1744) introduced l'opinion publique (public opinion) as the customs and manners of all members of society, not an elite.
By 1780, the term was used interchangeably with common will, public spirit, and public conscience to refer to political mass opinion (Price 1992).
Early theories treated public opinion as a mass entity or force of nature, not as an aggregation of individuals; it could influence public affairs like currents in the ocean (Palmer 1936; Spitz 1984).
With the rise of popular sovereignty (electoral institutions and parliamentary bodies, franchise expansion), governments had to account for public opinion and its distribution, not just policy desires but also support for the political order (Ginsberg 1982).
In early American republic, public opinion was associated with a thin educated, affluent minority; elites distrusted mass judgment in political matters (Alexander Hamilton quote about the people being turbulent and changing).
Mechanisms like the Electoral College and indirect election of senators were designed to distance leaders from everyday public sentiment, reflecting distrust of the masses.
By the mid-nineteenth century, concerns grew about excessive influence of public opinion due to the enlarged franchise; Tocqueville (1848) argued the numerical majority could intimidate minorities, risking tyranny of the majority; Bryce (1900) claimed US public opinion is extraordinarily powerful but hard to ascertain.
Walter Lippmann (1922, 1925) argued that mass opinion is shaped by images in people’s heads rather than direct experiences and facts; democracy should rely on leaders and