“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.
For instance, Menand writes, “The fraction of the electorates that responds to substantive political argument is hugely outweighed by the fraction that responds to slogans, misinformation...random personal association.” Mass voters mostly pursue the wrong or irrelevant information that are irrelevant to the election; thus lead them to vote for the candidates which they do not really want. Their choices mostly lack rationalities. Many voters who are slightly informative think that they are participating in a certain issue and considering the value of the candidates; yet most of them do not have adequate information and knowledge in understanding the meaning of political terms. Voters lack judgment on their government and candidates, their minds are easily being brainwashed by a small amount of people who has informative approaches in participating governmental issue, and affect their
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.
Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. Why Americans Don't Vote. New York: Pantheon, 1989.
Ginsberg, Benjamin, et al. We the People: An Introduction to American Politics. 9th ed. New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. Print."Voter Turnout." Nonprofit Vote. Nonprofit Vote, n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.
Gelman, Andrew and Gary King, “Why Are America Presidential Election Campaign Polls So Variable When Votes Are So Predictable?” 1993. PDF.
...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
...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.
Zorn, Eric. “One thing polls show accurately: Changed minds." Chicago Tribune Nov 9, 2004: 1.
...lso speaks of the instances where the system had failed to accurately represent the national popular will’s vote and goes into depth about each instance. Obviously this article is against the Electoral College and it gives many points in support of the anti-electoral college supporters. In conclusion of his article he does mention that this voting system has worked well throughout the years, but believes that it is not necessary because of the reasons that the Electoral College was established is no longer an issue in today’s world. So therefore the voting system is outdated. My use for this article in my research regarding the Electoral College debate will strengthen my argument against the Electoral College. It will be useful because of the in-depth explanations of each instance in which the current voting system failed to represent the national popular will.
“Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Political Survey” (Q.44CF1). Pew Research Center. The Pew Charitable Trusts, Oct. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Sanders, D., Clarke, H., Stewart, M. and Whiteley, P. (2005) The 2005 General Election in Great Britain, [Online], Available: http://www.essex.ac.uk/bes/Papers/ec%20report%20final.pdf [Date Accessed: 25/01/2014].
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...
Smith, Heather. "Rock the Vote 2.0." Esquire Vol. 148 No. 6. Dec. 2007: 208. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
Morris Janowitz,. "Harold Lasswell's contribution to content analysis.” Winter 1968-69, Public Opinion Quarterly, (1968): 648.
“Through the ongoing interaction of theorizing and empirical research consistent with the scientific method, agenda-setting theory has evolved from a tightly focused perspective to a broad theory. Initially, the focus was on the way media affect the public’s view of which issues are important. Later the theory broadened to encompass five distinct aspects of public life: basic and attribute agenda-setting effects, the psychology of these processes, and the consequences of these effects for opinions and behavior. The participation of scholars worldwide has been central to the continuing productivity of the theory” (Maxwell McCombs).