Public Opinion Research in Government

1949 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 564-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold F. Gosnell ◽  
Moyca C. David
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
Public Opinion Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
The Government ◽  
Radio Programs

The actual use of polling techniques by the federal government falls far short of what one eminent social scientist, Julian L. Woodward, foresees for the future. He says: “Sooner or later, the government itself will have to go into the polling field and provide both its administrators and its legislators with adequate and sound information on what the public thinks. Eventually this sort of information will become as necessary as census data and will be provided by an agency with a reputation for unbiased research equal to that now enjoyed by the present Census Bureau.”While the potentialities of public opinion research in the government have only begun to be exploited, administrators and even legislators, who characteristically have been more hostile toward polling, have found methods of testing public opinion answerable to their needs. In accord with their purposes, they have used public opinion surveys to sample a small group of leaders, a large group, or the total population. They have been concerned also with content analysis of the press and of radio programs. The usefulness of attitude surveys was established particularly during the war and has continued since in a somewhat lesser degree.

scholarly journals How to measure public demand for policies when there is no appropriate survey data?

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianca Oehl ◽  
Lena Maria Schaffer ◽  
Thomas Bernauer
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Explanatory Models ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Search Data ◽  
The Government ◽  
Public Demand

AbstractExplanatory models accounting for variation in policy choices by democratic governments usually include a demand (by the public) and a supply (by the government) component, whereas the latter component is usually better developed from a measurement viewpoint. The main reason is that public opinion surveys, the standard approach to measuring public demand, are expensive, difficult to implement simultaneously for different countries for purposes of crossnational comparison and impossible to implementex postfor purposes of longitudinal analysis if survey data for past time periods are lacking. We therefore propose a new approach to measuring public demand, focussing on political claims made by nongovernmental actors and expressed in the news. To demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of our measure ofpublished opinion, we focus on climate policy in the time period between 1995 and 2010. When comparing the new measure of published opinion with the best available public opinion survey and internet search data, it turns out that our data can serve as a meaningful proxy for public demand.

Mexico insecurity to weigh on AMLO approval

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Approval Ratings ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Electoral Campaign ◽  
Presidential Popularity ◽  
The Government

Subject Presidential popularity. Significance Several public opinion surveys published this month show President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO)’s approval ratings to have fallen to their lowest levels since he took office in 2018. The polls suggest public disapproval has doubled or even tripled in some cases, particularly among Mexico’s most educated. While interviewees across the board acknowledge that the government has done much to ease poverty and support vulnerable groups such as the elderly, the polls also show respondents to be critical of its handling of issues that were at the centre of AMLO’s electoral campaign, such as corruption and security. Impacts AMLO’s relaxed attitude towards COVID-19 will play increasingly badly with the public and potentially with members of his own government. Declining support will not necessarily see AMLO ousted in the 2022 recall referendum -- he is still more trusted than other politicians. The falling popularity of Morena will not necessarily boost support for other parties, whose shares of voting intentions remain low.

Has Anyone Seen It?

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmar Radin ◽  
Aleksandar Džakula
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Health Care Performance ◽  
Policy Arena ◽  
Care Performance

Over the past decade, public opinion surveys have shown that Croats are deeply dissatisfied with their health care system and asses it to be one of the most important issues. However, health care hardly makes it into any political discourse in Croatia. This study analyzes the results of a public opinion survey conducted before the 2007 parliamentary elections to find out what the public sentiment on health care performance in Croatia is and to analyze the reasons why health care is not addressed by political actors. Evidence suggests that while health care is the most salient issue today, the public often understands it poorly. Thus, in a political environment of competing issues, and given the complexity of tacking health care in the policy arena, politicians strategically avoid discussing the issue.

scholarly journals E-LEARNING ACCESSIBILITY IN STATE-OWNED SCHOOLS IN NORTH BALI

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Wicaksana Gede Dharma Arya ◽  
Dewi Ni Putu Febriana
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Public ◽  
Interview Guide ◽  
E Learning ◽  
The Government ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

This study aimed at investigating the implementation of e-learning in one of government non-favourite schools in Singaraja. This study was the result of the real implementationof e-learning in Bali in which the government expected e-learning to be applicable in every school in Bali since the launching of Balinese version of E-learning 2017. This research was a descriptive qualitative research. This study used snowball sampling in which the public opinion was counted. The data were collected by using observation and interview guide. The result of the study showed that the implementation of e-learning was not running well and became a serious problem. Some sollutions were offered in this study.

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.

Political Attitudes of China’s Post-1980s Generation

2017 ◽  
Vol 09 (04) ◽  
pp. 112-124
Author(s):  
Wei SHAN
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
The Government

The political attitudes of the post-1980s generation in China are important for understanding the country’s political future. Public opinion surveys reveal the post-1980s group as the least nationalistic and more sceptical of the government than the older generations. They show little interest in politics despite their confidence of participating in public issues. In the long term, Beijing will have to face a society led by the more critical and less obedient post-1980s.

How Global Citizenries Think about Democracy: An Evaluation and Synthesis of Recent Public Opinion Research

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
DOH CHULL SHIN ◽  
HANNAH JUNE KIM
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Public Opinion Research ◽  
Research Institutes ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

AbstractSince the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, individual scholars and research institutes have conducted numerous public opinion surveys to monitor how global citizenries react to the process of democratization taking place in their own countries and elsewhere. This article reviews the various issues surrounding the divergent conceptions of democracy among political scientists and ordinary citizens, and synthesizes significant findings of the conceptual and empirical research based on these surveys. It also raises a set of new questions that future surveys should address to broaden and deepen our knowledge about citizen conceptions of democracy.

The Public Opinion Research Correspondent

1980 ◽  
Vol 44 (4, Polls and the News Media: A Symposium) ◽  
pp. 585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Opinion Research ◽  
The Public

Corruption and the Public Service Ethos in Mid-Victorian Administration: The Case of Leonard Horner and the Factory Office*

2020 ◽  
Vol 135 (575) ◽  
pp. 860-891
Author(s):  
Ian Cawood
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
The Public ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Government ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Changing Attitudes

Abstract While the problem of political corruption in mid-nineteenth century Britain has been much studied, the experience of corrupt behaviour in public bodies, both new and long established, is comparatively neglected. This article takes the example of one of the first inspectorates set up after the Great Reform Act, the Factory Office, to examine the extent of corrupt practices in the British civic state and the means whereby it was addressed. It examines the changing processes of appointment, discipline and promotion, the issues of remuneration and venality, and the relationships between inspectors, workers, factory owners, the government and the wider civil service, and the press and public opinion. The article argues that the changing attitudes of the inspectors, especially those of Leonard Horner, were indicative of a developing ‘public service ethos’ in both bureaucratic and cultural settings and that the work of such unsung administrators was one of the agencies through which corrupt behaviour in the civic structures of Victorian Britain was, with public support, challenged. The article concludes that the endogenous reform of bureaucratic practice achieved by the factory inspectorate may even be of equal significance as that which resulted from the celebrated Northcote–Trevelyan Report of 1854.

scholarly journals Responsibilization and Sexual Stigma Under Austerity: Surveying Public Support for Government-Funded PrEP in England

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-653
Author(s):  
Timothy Hildebrandt ◽  
Leticia Bode ◽  
Jessica S. C. Ng
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sexual Stigma ◽  
The Government ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Media Narratives

Abstract Introduction Under austerity, governments shift responsibilities for social welfare to individuals. Such responsibilization can be intertwined with pre-existing social stigmas, with sexually stigmatized individuals blamed more for health problems due to “irresponsible” sexual behavior. To understand how sexual stigma affects attitudes on government healthcare expenditures, we examine public support for government-provisioned PrEP in England at a time when media narratives cast the drug as an expensive benefit for a small, irresponsible social group and the National Health Service’s long-term sustainability was in doubt. Methods This paper uses data from an original survey (N = 738) conducted in September 2016, when public opinion should be most sensitive to sexual stigma. A survey experiment tests how the way beneficiaries of PrEP were described affected support for NHS provision of it. Contrary to expectations, we found that support was high (mean = 3.86 on a scale of 1 to 5) irrespective of language used or beneficiary group mentioned. Differences between conditions were negligible. Discussion Sexual stigma does not diminish support for government-funded PrEP, which may be due to reverence for the NHS; resistance to responsibilization generally; or just to HIV, with the public influenced by sympathy and counter-messaging. Social policy implications Having misjudged public attitudes, it may be difficult for the government to continue to justify not funding PrEP; the political rationale for contracting out its provision is unnecessary and flawed. With public opinion resilient to responsibilization narratives and sexual stigma even under austerity, welfare retrenchment may be more difficult than social policymakers presume.

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