“In no country is public opinion so powerful as in the United States” stated British journalist James Brice in 1900 (Erikson, 3). He was very perceptive as the use of polls of the public was increasing. Politicians traditionally have the goal of re-election. Because of this, many politicians are swayed by the results of polls of the public. The question is, of course, are the political polls correct and how much they should effect and influence political decision-making. This has been something that politicians have had to ask themselves for many years, and in the end there is four main lines of thought on political polls. Walter Lippman, George Gallup, Herbert Blummer, and Lindsay Rogers generated these thoughts in an effort to explain the problems with polls and how much, if any, consideration politicians should give to them. Walter Lippman was a major critic of the polls as well as bit of an elitist. He believed that the mass public could be influenced by elite propaganda and therefore were incapable of making the best decisions. The general population that is polled does not have all of the latest, correct information to make an educated informed decision (Erikson, 3). When Lippman was speaking of this it was the early 1920s were people only received the news if they brought a newspaper and then it was limited to how much information was published. Today you can find out almost anything on the Internet, which in some was discredits this line of thought a bit. Lippman thought that while the leaders of the country should be elected by the public, it would be best if scientifically oriented people were to make the public policy as they had a clearer picture of what was currently happening (Erikson,3). To a certain point, I th... ... middle of paper ... ...e answer to any question. All four, Lippman, Gallup, Blummer and Rogers have good points for how much credence polls should be given, though I think that Gallup and Lippman are a bit extreme for today’s culture. Lippman wanted to ignore the polls too much and Gallup wanted to enforce the polls too much. I think that polls are just one more tool in a politician’s toolbox. Like Lindsay Rodgers I agree with Edmund Burke that politicians should use their best judgment to make decisions. While I do want the people who’s job it is to represent me to pay attention when I do make the effort to let them know my opinion on a particular issue, I try to trust them to watch out for the best interest of my community. Works Cited Erikson, Robert S., and Kent L. Tedin. American Public Opinion: Its Origins, Content, and Impact. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. Print.
Zorn, Eric. “One thing polls show accurately: Changed minds." Chicago Tribune Nov 9, 2004: 1.
In the wake of the 2016 general election, Michael Lind published a piece on The Smart Set entitled: Can Electoral Reform Save America? This piece centered around a single question on the ballot of a single state, question 5 in Maine, and the impact on electoral reform it could have for the country according to Lind. Using deconstruction, Lind analyzes the idea of a Ranked Choice polling system, rather than the first-past-the-post system that is currently in place in the United States. His allusions to the past as well as separate government entities globally, as well as a deconstruction of both polling systems and the impact they have (or could have) allows the reader to absorb information and produce their own personal opinion.
Curtis, J., Fisher S., Lessard-Philips L. 2007.Proportional Representation and disappearing voter. British Social Attitudes: Perspectives on a changing society, ed. A.Park 119-25. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. Why Americans Don't Vote. New York: Pantheon, 1989.
In addition, it isn’t feasible for a voter to comprehend the numerous offices and candidates in an election and how informed do voters need to be, in order for them to be confident in their choice. However, with the removal of straight-ticket voting, voter turnout may decrease, but the vote quality will increase due to an improved versed decision and in addition, an increase in the chance of a professional holding a government position. There are no excuses for voters to not be informed because there are various resources that determine an individual preferred political candidate. Through the use of the internet, websites offer political quizzes that matches a voter's beliefs with a candidate. For example, Isidewith.com is an online website that asks the participant various question about concerning issues in politics such as, abortion, , environmental, economic, and domestic policy issues. Based on the results, it will give the participant selections on the candidates that closely relates to their beliefs.
Policy-makers are not bound by citizen’s opinions ¬– unless it is a binding referenda – and yet public participation is said to help “reverse the growing democratic deficit, foster citizenship and community capacity, and promote responsive and effective policy decisions” (Woodford and Preston 346). These “improvements,” in practice, raises a larger question: should Members of Parliament be voting in accordance with party politics or those of their constituents? Since the effective inclusion of citizens opinions “requires that public administrators and policy makers be committed to genuinely considering [this] input in policy analysis and decision-making” (347). Without a commitment to the collective voice, citizens may not be any better off. This calls into question whether a decrease in voter turn out is associated with the lack of influence citizens feel they really have in policy-making and the larger Canadian picture.
Gelman, Andrew and Gary King, “Why Are America Presidential Election Campaign Polls So Variable When Votes Are So Predictable?” 1993. PDF.
...ling or the results. The sample was sufficient enough to prevent any hastiness or weak generalizations and the process by which they went about collecting the data was completely random in terms of selecting a balanced and equal number of participants. The target population was the general American public and these methods seem to accurately reflect the target’s characteristics. With the techniques conducted by Rasmussen it becomes possible for a bias to creep in. The main issue comes with the online surveys because, despite being sent to a specific set of people, the amount of those who decided to participate or if it was the correct person can not be out of the control of the pollsters, which is one aspect was. The target population for this then, the active voters in the U.S., becomes harder to connect to due to the lapse in full randomly selected participants.
...ds, William. <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=pcZ8g7DjAzA&offerid=6424&type=2&subid=0&url=http%253A//search.borders.com/fcgi-bin/db2www/search/search.d2w/Details%253F%2526mediaType%253DBook%2526prodID%253D3901535" >Political Attitudes in the Nation & the States<IMG border=0 alt=icon width=1 height=1 src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=pcZ8g7DjAzA&bids=6424&type=2&subid=0" >. University North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Institute for Research in Social Science. 1974Mulcahy, Kevin and Katz, Richard. <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=pcZ8g7DjAzA&offerid=6424&type=2&subid=0&url=http%253A//search.borders.com/fcgi-bin/db2www/search/search.d2w/Details%253F%2526mediaType%253DBook%2526prodID%253D14579075" >America Votes: What You Should Know About Elections Today<IMG border=0 alt=icon width=1 height=1 src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=pcZ8g7DjAzA&bids=6424&type=2&subid=0" >. New Jersey, Prentice Hall Inc. 1976.U.S. News & World Report Politics Inside and Out Washington D.C., U.S. News and World Report. 1970
Shenkman, R. (2008). Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter. New York: Basic Books.
The analysis of political behavior operates under the assumption that political behavior is not a special form of human activity, independent of what is known about general social behavior. (Political Behavior, 1968) The majority of political behavioral research is focused on identifying not only an individual’s behavior, but also with predicting the behavior of a group of people. It is understood that these groups do not exist without individuals; therefore, it is the individual dynamic that constitutes a collective group action. This is the focus of political behavioral research. The three widely accepted behavioral models of voter choice are: the sociological model, the social-psychological model, and the rational choice model. These three models diverge in methodology and application of research, but each has provided important data regarding the factors that influence voter choice.
...onducted by Gallup in this article are well designed and representative of the entire voting population. However, there is always room for improvement, and I am confident that the polls are becoming more and more accurate every day. It is very important that polls are as accurate as possible because people trust polls, basing their views and reports on them.
In the last three decades, polls became an important instrument for the media, especially television networks, to determine who wins and who loses the election. Caprini conducted a study about the impact of the early prediction of a winner in the 1980 presidential race by the television networks. He observed that, shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern standard time, NBC announced that, according to its analysis of exit poll data, Ronald Reagan was to be the next president of the United States (Caprini, 1984, p. 866). That early call was controversial because the polls in many states were still open at the time and, in some of th...
(Source C). In source C Dave Winston a republican pollster, believes that political polls do not represent the views of the population accurately due to the fact “Surveys this year found that between four percent and twelve percent of voters in key states made up their mind on who to vote for on Election Day.”, he also sees that many pollsters cant poll on
In sorting through much of the research on political opinions and voting very little is clear. Theorist and researchers differ on what is the major factor in the decline of voting in America. An influential idea provided by Robert Putnam was the increase in television watching and its effect on the American people. Others suggest that the growing economic inequality in American lives. But we are working with people who can be very surprising and strange as maybe the outcomes. I try to look at many factors that may indicate some reasons to what a portion of the population ...