scholarly journals Is Congress Really for Sale?

Contexts ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Burstein
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Campaign Contributions ◽  
Special Interests ◽  
The Public ◽  
Party Ideology ◽  
The Way

Many Americans lament the way special interests sway politicians with campaign contributions and lobbying, procuring privileged treatment even when the public is opposed. Research shows, however, that contributions and lobbying determine public policy much less than most people think. When major issues arise, party, ideology and public opinion matter much more.

scholarly journals Public Opinion and Public Policy in Advanced Democracies

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wlezien
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Government

The representation of public opinion in public policy is of obvious importance in representative democracies. While public opinion is important in all political systems, it is especially true where voters elect politicians; after all, opinion representation is a primary justification for representative democracy. Not surprisingly, a lot of research addresses the connection between the public and the government. Much of the work considers “descriptive representation”—whether the partisan and demographic characteristics of elected politicians match the characteristics of the electorate itself. This descriptive representation is important but may not produce actual “substantive representation” of preferences in policy. Other work examines the positions of policymakers. Some of this research assesses the roll call voting behavior of politicians and institutions. The expressed positions and voting behavior of political actors do relate to policy but are not the same things. Fortunately, a good amount of research analyzes policy. With but a handful of exceptions noted below, this research focuses on expressed preferences of the public, not their “interests.” That is, virtually all scholars let people be the judges of their own interests, and they assess the representation of expressed opinion no matter how contrary to self-interest it may seem.

scholarly journals CONSTITUTIONALISM AND JUDICIALIZATION OF POLITICS: THE “JUDICIAL” RIGHT TO HEALTHCARE IN BRAZIL

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 358-393
Author(s):  
Bruno Irion Coletto ◽  
Pedro Da Silva Moreira
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
The Public ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Way

The right to healthcare in Brazil is seriously protected by the courts. Judicialization of everyday implementation of this public policy is a fact. One explanation may be provided by the way judges understand the effectiveness of this right. People hold subjective right to individualized healthcare benefits, and so they hold standing to sue the state in order to achieve it, regardless any consideration of public policies. Through an analysis of the jurisprudence on this issue, this paper aims to provide a critical understanding not just about what is actually happening in Brazilian courts regarding healthcare, but also to criticize it. The conclusion is that a “strong” conception of constitutionalism and fundamental rights may revel itself as “weak,” from the standpoint of general equality. Judicialization ends up empting the public debate, leading the task of solving the distribution of scarce resources to a “gowned aristocracy.” 

Public opinion and public policy in the United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saundra K. Schneider ◽  
William G. Jacoby
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aggregate Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Responsiveness ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Policy Field ◽  
The Relationship

In a properly-functioning democracy, public opinion should not only be correlated with, but also a major determinant of, public policy. Is that the case in the United States? In this chapter, we address that question by covering the major lines of empirical research on the relationship between American public opinion and public policy. We begin with early work that emphasized the limits of popular thinking about government, creating the apparent need for democratic elitism in governmental action. More recent literature includes perspectives from the public policy field, and research on democratic responsiveness at both the national and state levels. Major lines of work emphasize the existence of rational public opinion at the aggregate level which ‘smooths out’ the inconsistencies that may exist within individual policy attitudes. Seminal studies have considered both the degree of correspondence between opinion and policy (i.e., ‘the rational public’), and models that specify how policy responds to opinion (thermostatic responses and the macropolity). Recent methodological innovations have led to new insights about democratic responsiveness in the American states. Our general conclusion is cautiously optimistic: Policy generally does follow the contours of citizen preference, but elites also have opportunities to shape manifestations of public opinion.

Public Opinion and Morality Policy: Lessons from Canada and the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mildred A. Schwartz ◽  
Raymond Tatalovich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Morality Policy ◽  
The Public

Abstract To clarify why research examining the responsiveness of governments to public opinion produces mixed results, the authors focus on issues involving contested moral values that are known to be highly salient to the public and hence more likely to be linked to public policy. Canada and the United States, where the same issues have emerged, allow them to isolate the factors resulting in majoritarian congruence, where policies follow public opinion. The authors attribute finding even less congruence than previous research to the dominance of the courts in ruling on morality issues, although they also find a greater role for the legislature in Canada. The authors raise the possibility that the very salience of the issues inhibited political action from conflict-avoidant politicians.

scholarly journals How Elite Partisan Polarization Affects Public Opinion Formation

2013 ◽  
Vol 107 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES N. DRUCKMAN ◽  
ERIK PETERSON ◽  
RUNE SLOTHUUS
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Opinion Formation ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

Competition is a defining element of democracy. One of the most noteworthy events over the last quarter-century in U.S. politics is the change in the nature of elite party competition: The parties have become increasingly polarized. Scholars and pundits actively debate how these elite patterns influence polarization among the public (e.g., have citizens also become more ideologically polarized?). Yet, few have addressed what we see as perhaps more fundamental questions: Has elite polarization altered the way citizens arrive at their policy opinions in the first place and, if so, in what ways? We address these questions with a theory and two survey experiments (on the issues of drilling and immigration). We find stark evidence that polarized environments fundamentally change how citizens make decisions. Specifically, polarization intensifies the impact of party endorsements on opinions, decreases the impact of substantive information and, perhaps ironically, stimulates greater confidence in those—less substantively grounded—opinions. We discuss the implications for public opinion formation and the nature of democratic competition.

scholarly journals CONSTITUTIONALISM AND JUDICIALIZATION OF POLITICS: THE “JUDICIAL” RIGHT TO HEALTHCARE IN BRAZIL

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 358-393
Author(s):  
Bruno Irion Coletto ◽  
Pedro Da Silva Moreira
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
The Public ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Way

The right to healthcare in Brazil is seriously protected by the courts. Judicialization of everyday implementation of this public policy is a fact. One explanation may be provided by the way judges understand the effectiveness of this right. People hold subjective right to individualized healthcare benefits, and so they hold standing to sue the state in order to achieve it, regardless any consideration of public policies. Through an analysis of the jurisprudence on this issue, this paper aims to provide a critical understanding not just about what is actually happening in Brazilian courts regarding healthcare, but also to criticize it. The conclusion is that a “strong” conception of constitutionalism and fundamental rights may revel itself as “weak,” from the standpoint of general equality. Judicialization ends up empting the public debate, leading the task of solving the distribution of scarce resources to a “gowned aristocracy.” 

scholarly journals Policy Responsiveness to Public Opinion

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Erikson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Causal Chain ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Policy Responsiveness ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Representation ◽  
Advanced Democracies

Policy responsiveness is a goal of democratic government—that government action responds to the preferences of its citizens. It is conceptually distinct from “representation,” whereby government actions mirror the preferences of public opinion. Governments can be representative without a direct responsiveness causal mechanism. Policy can respond to public opinion but remain biased due to other influences besides the public. Responsiveness is no certain result in a democracy, as there are many links in the causal chain that must be unbroken for it to be at work. Citizens can vote politicians in or out of office based on the adequacy of their policy representation. But are they up for the task? Do elected officials believe they must follow public opinion, and do they know what their constituents want? Ultimately, how strongly does government policy reflect citizen views? This essay addresses these questions. The literature reviewed here covers only policy representation in the United States. For related coverage, including outside the US sphere, see essays by Will Jennings (Mechanisms of Representation) and Christopher Wlezien (Advanced Democracies: Public Opinion and Public Policy in Advanced Democracies) as part of this Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science series. One conclusion is that public opinion is an influential force in determining public policy in the United States, especially when it comes to setting the ideological tone of policy in the states or the nation. The degree of influence may seem surprising given what we know about voters’ capabilities. Yet there is reason for caution as well as optimism. The general public’s influence sometimes faces the headwinds of hostile economic forces. Influence is not equally distributed across all segments of the public.

scholarly journals Public Opinion and Public Policy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wlezien ◽  
Stuart N. Soroka
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
The Public ◽  
Basic Model ◽  
Policy Representation

The link between the public opinion and public policy is fundamental to political representation. The current empirical literature tests a general model in which policy is considered to be a function of public preferences. The mechanics by which preferences are converted to policy are considered along with extensions of the basic model - extensions through which the magnitude of opinion representation varies systematically acorss issues and political institutions. Thus, public opinion is an independent variable - an important driver of public policy change. With the consideration of 12/1 opinion as a dependent variable, specifically, its responsiveness to policy change - the ongoing existence of both policy representation and public responsiveness is critical to the functioning of representative democracy.

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