Making the People Speak: The Use of Public Opinion Polls in Democracy

Although the German constitution does not provide for the directelection of the head of the executive branch by the people, the preeminentposition of the federal chancellor has long tempted commentatorsto describe the German political system as a “chancellordemocracy.”1 Based on this characterization, one might be temptedto assume that the German election of 2002 was therefore aboutelecting a chancellor. To be sure, if voters could have voted for thechancellor directly in 2002, Gerhard Schröder would have easilydefeated Edmund Stoiber. Yet, despite public opinion polls that neveronce showed the challenger outpolling the chancellor throughout theentire election year, the election turned out to be a cliffhanger.

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A Research Report

Southern California Quarterly ◽

10.1525/ucpsocal.2015.97.4.399 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 97 (4) ◽

pp. 399-417 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Roger W. Lotchin

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Public Opinion ◽

Japanese Americans ◽

Research Report ◽

Japanese American ◽

World War ◽

The People ◽

Public Opinion Polls ◽

Opinion Polls

Public opinion polls taken between 1939 and 1945 questioned Americans’ attitudes toward Japan and Germany and toward the people of Japan and Japanese Americans. The polls’ quantified responses provide previously overlooked data that should be taken into account by scholars of Japanese American and World War II history.

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Public Opinion Polls on Japan

Far Eastern Survey ◽

10.1525/as.1950.19.10.01p0599l ◽

1950 ◽

Vol 19 (10) ◽

pp. 101-103

Author(s):

Arthur N. Feraru

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Public Opinion Polls ◽

Opinion Polls

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The Influence of Modern Party System on the Development of Parliamentarism in Russia: Institutional, Political and Psychological Aspects

Almanac “Essays on Conservatism” ◽

10.24030/24092517-2018-0-4-266-273 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

pp. 266-273

Author(s):

Ivan S. Palitai

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Party System ◽

Psychological Aspects ◽

Political Activity ◽

The Public ◽

Political Processes ◽

The People ◽

Voting System ◽

New Ideas ◽

Opinion Polls

The article is devoted to the modern Russian party system. In the first part of the article, the author shows the historical features of the parties formation in Russia and analyzes the reasons for the low turnout in the elections to the State Duma in 2016. According to the author the institutional reasons consist in the fact that the majority of modern political parties show less and less ability to produce new ideas, and the search for meanings is conducted on the basis of the existing, previously proposed sets of options. Parties reduce the topic of self-identification in party rhetoric, narrowing it down to “branded” ideas or focusing on the image of the leader. In addition, the author shows the decrease in the overall political activity of citizens after the 2011 elections, and points out that the legislation amendments led to the reduction of the election campaigns duration and changes in the voting system itself. The second part of the article is devoted to the study of the psychological aspects of the party system. The author presents the results of the investigation of images of the parties as well as the results of the population opinion polls, held by the centers of public opinion study. On the basis of this data, the author concludes that according to the public opinion the modern party system is ineffective, and the parties don’t have real political weight, which leads to the decrease of the interest in their activities and confidence in them. The author supposes that all this may be the consequence of the people’s fatigue from the same persons in politics, but at the same time the electorate’s desire to see new participants in political processes is formulated rather vaguely, since, according to the people, this might not bring any positive changes.

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Growing Inequality and Public Awareness of Inequality in the States

10.1093/oso/9780190671013.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

William W. Franko ◽

Christopher Witko

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Income Inequality ◽

Public Awareness ◽

Public Concern ◽

The Public ◽

Political Conditions ◽

Perceptions Of Inequality ◽

Public Opinion Polls ◽

Opinion Polls

Here the authors present the variation that exists in income inequality across the states, and variation in public awareness or concern about income inequality as measured by public opinion polls. Though politicians may decide to tackle income inequality even in the absence of public concern about inequality, the authors argue that government responses are more likely when and where there is a growing awareness of, and concern about, inequality, which is confirmed in the analyses in this book. To examine this question in subsequent chapters, a novel measure of public awareness of rising state inequality is developed. Using these estimates, this chapter shows that the growth in the public concern about inequality responds in part to objective increases in inequality, but also that state political conditions, particularly mass partisanship, shape perceptions of inequality.

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Public Opinion Polls

Public Opinion Quarterly ◽

10.1086/265676 ◽

1944 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 124

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Public Opinion Polls ◽

Opinion Polls

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Hated but still human: Metadehumanization leads to greater hostility than metaprejudice

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations ◽

10.1177/1368430220979035 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136843022097903

Author(s):

Alexander P. Landry ◽

Elliott Ihm ◽

Jonathan W. Schooler

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

The Other ◽

Intergroup Conflict ◽

Negative Bias ◽

Intergroup Conflicts ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

Public Opinion Polls ◽

Opinion Polls

Metadehumanization, the perception that members of an outgroup dehumanize your group, has been found to exacerbate intergroup conflict by inspiring reciprocal dehumanization of the offending outgroup. Moreover, metadehumanization is distinct from metaprejudice (i.e., the perception that an outgroup hates your group). Given the mutual animosity reported in public opinion polls toward the other side, we believed US–Russia relations would be a worthwhile context in which to extend this model. Therefore, we measured Americans’ levels of metadehumanization and metaprejudice of Russians to determine the association between these perceptions and their hostility toward Russians (Study 1). In this novel intergroup conflict, metadehumanization remained a consequential predictor of outgroup hostility over and above metaprejudice, suggesting that it can exacerbate a broader range of intergroup conflicts than those heretofore examined. Given these findings, we then sought to experimentally differentiate between metadehumanization and metaprejudice. In Study 2, we manipulated both metadehumanization and metaprejudice to (a) determine whether one or both cause greater outgroup hostility and (b) elucidate the underlying mechanisms by which they may produce this effect. Whereas metadehumanization produced greater hostility, metaprejudice did not. Moreover, although both metaperceptions inspired greater prejudice, only metadehumanization led to greater dehumanization. We conclude that metadehumanization may be a particularly potent fomenter of hostility because it inspires reciprocal dehumanization over and above more general negative bias.

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Introduction

German Politics & Society ◽

10.3167/gps.2018.360201 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 36 (2) ◽

pp. 1-4

Author(s):

Eric Lagenbacher

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Election Outcome ◽

The Political ◽

Special Issue ◽

Political Situation ◽

German Politics ◽

Left Party ◽

Public Opinion Polls ◽

Opinion Polls

Although it has not been that long since the articles of the previous special issue devoted to the 2017 Bundestag election and its aftermath have been published, the political situation in Germany appears to have stabilized. After almost six months without a new government, German politics has sunk back into a kind of late-Merkel era normality. Public opinion polls continue to show that the CDU/CSU is slightly above its election outcome, the SPD is still down in the 17–18 percent range, the FDP has lost about 2 percent of its support, while the AfD, Greens and Left Party are up 1–2 percent.

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Social contract in the era of the 90s

Inter ◽

10.19181/inter.2019.18.4 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (18) ◽

pp. 55-79

Author(s):

Elena Rozhdestvenskaya

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Social Contract ◽

Historical Memory ◽

Social Groups ◽

Social Institutions ◽

Russian Society ◽

Social Actors ◽

Social Contracts ◽

Public Opinion Polls ◽

Opinion Polls

The article deals with the changing social contract in the era of the 90s. Combined several levels of analysis: reconstruction of the era of the 90s by methods of public opinion polls and a qualitative analysis of narratives about the era of the 90s, representatives of various social groups (workers, employees / civil servants, entrepreneurs). If public opinion polls the most important events of the era, which made up the historical memory of the generation who participated in the changes of Russian society, the narratives of the 90s contain a description of the experience and reﬂection of social actors regarding the limits and possibilities of this era. The conceptual framework of the study describes the concept of a social contract as a balance of expectations between its performing individuals and social institutions. The social contract is operationalized as a set of action strategies that have been implemented by individuals and are the subject of their memories in the biographical interview mode. As a result of the study, a specifcation was made for representatives of the above-mentioned social groups of various social contracts that have undergone devaluation and changed during the 90s.

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