Collective Preferences in Democratic Politics

Opinion Surveys and the Will of the People

Häftad, Engelska, 2003

Av Scott L. Althaus, Urbana-Champaign) Althaus, Scott L. (University of Illinois

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Since so few people appear knowledgeable about public affairs, one might question whether collective policy preferences revealed in opinion surveys accurately convey the distribution of voices and interests in a society. This study, the first comprehensive treatment of the relationship between knowledge, representation, and political equality in opinion surveys, suggests some surprising answers. Knowledge does matter, and the way it is distributed in society can cause collective preferences to reflect disproportionately the opinions of some groups more than others. Sometimes collective preferences seem to represent something like the will of the people, but frequently they do not. Sometimes they rigidly enforce political equality in the expression of political viewpoints, but often they do not. The primary culprit is not any inherent shortcoming in the methods of survey research. Rather, it is the limited degree of knowledge held by ordinary citizens about public affairs. Accounting for these factors can help better appreciate thepossibilities for using opinion polls to represent the people's voice.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2003-09-08
Mått152 x 226 x 25 mm
Vikt570 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor388
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9780521527873
UtmärkelserGoldsmith Book Prize 2004

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1. Introduction; Part I. Illusions of Aggregation: 2. The power of noise; 3. Who speaks for the people?; Part II. Information Effects in Collective Preferences: 4. The impact of information effects; 5. The structure and causes of information effects; 6. The temporal dynamics of information effects; Part III. Opinion Surveys and Democratic Politics: 7. Opinion surveys and the will of the people; 8. What surveys can tell us about public opinion.

"This is a major work, arguably the most important in the study of public opinion since John Zaller's The Nature of Public Opinion. For many years distinguished scholars have suggested that, although citizens often are ill-informed and erratic in their judgments about politics, their errors and biases tend to cancel out. A comforting thought, if true. Althaus, however, provides the most compelling demonstration to date that it is false." Paul M. Sniderman, Stanford University