Polling, Policy, and Public Opinion

"Each year hundreds of opinion polls announce the desire of the American public to expand social welfare programs. Whether increasing funding for schools, assisting the poor, or subsidizing prescription drugs for the elderly, overwhelming majorities support spending more and more. Pollsters proclaim this support as the will of the people, and politicians who ignore it do so at their peril. But is this really what the American public is asking for? In Polling, Policy, and Public Opinion, Robert Weissberg answers this question with a resounding "No." Not only do many Americans lack the background in public policy needed to contribute informed responses on these issues, but they also are unable to grasp the impact that the increased costs of these programs will have on the federal budget, or even on their own taxes. Rather than offering the public a chance to advise government on policy issues, public opinion polls do more to convey the political agenda of those conducting the polls than the true sentiments of the people polled. In fact, polls actually work to undermine citizen control by awarding power to publicly unaccountable pollsters. Using two different national surveys, one on federal daycare and the other on education, Polling, Policy, and Public Opinion convincingly shows how polls do not provide a "democratic mandate." Weissberg provides compelling evidence for why elections, not polling, are the superior democratic method and why our energies for political action are best expressed at the voting booth and not through a questionnaire."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.