public opinion
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION:
We learn about public opinion through polling, which asks people their views and then compiles the results. Politicians and pundits in many countries rely on public opinion polls, and the media frequently reports on polls. Sampling a subset of the population allows pollsters, or the people who create and take the polls, to get a sense of overarching concerns and interests within a large population. Rather than polling every citizen, an expensive and time-consuming process, polls use samples. Pollsters hope that the opinions of the sample accurately reflect the population as a whole. Just as one does not need to taste every bite of stew to know that it needs more salt, one need not poll every person to learn public opinion.
CHAPTER TWO
DEFINITION
Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views, or as a single opinion held by an individual about a social or political topic. The meaning of public opinion has changed dramatically over time. Political scientist Susan Herbst writes that "Formalized tabulation of political opinions began in the city-states of ancient Greece, where elections were viewed as central components of the democratic process. Yet it was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that quantification became a significant element of political discourse in the West."
COMPONENTS OF PUBLIC OPINION Attitudes And Values
How many people actually form opinions on a given issue, as well as what sorts of opinions they form, depends partly on their immediate situations, partly on more-general social-environmental factors, and partly on their preexisting knowledge, attitudes, and values. Because attitudes and values play such a crucial role in the development of public opinion, scholars of the subject are naturally interested in the nature of these phenomena,
INTRODUCTION:
We learn about public opinion through polling, which asks people their views and then compiles the results. Politicians and pundits in many countries rely on public opinion polls, and the media frequently reports on polls. Sampling a subset of the population allows pollsters, or the people who create and take the polls, to get a sense of overarching concerns and interests within a large population. Rather than polling every citizen, an expensive and time-consuming process, polls use samples. Pollsters hope that the opinions of the sample accurately reflect the population as a whole. Just as one does not need to taste every bite of stew to know that it needs more salt, one need not poll every person to learn public opinion.
CHAPTER TWO
DEFINITION
Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views, or as a single opinion held by an individual about a social or political topic. The meaning of public opinion has changed dramatically over time. Political scientist Susan Herbst writes that "Formalized tabulation of political opinions began in the city-states of ancient Greece, where elections were viewed as central components of the democratic process. Yet it was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that quantification became a significant element of political discourse in the West."
COMPONENTS OF PUBLIC OPINION Attitudes And Values
How many people actually form opinions on a given issue, as well as what sorts of opinions they form, depends partly on their immediate situations, partly on more-general social-environmental factors, and partly on their preexisting knowledge, attitudes, and values. Because attitudes and values play such a crucial role in the development of public opinion, scholars of the subject are naturally interested in the nature of these phenomena,