POLB50Y3 Final: POLB52 FINAL REVIEW
Document Summary
Public opinion and policy making in canada 1994-2001. This article attempts to resolve the dilemma of presumed attentiveness to public opinion and the frequent lack of correlation between opinion and policy. Theoretical expectations regarding the correlation between opinion and policy. Policy might diverge with opinion because although elected officials may try to respond to public opinion, they do not think that polls accurately represent the real state of public opinion. Another argument in support of non-responsiveness emphasizes the autonomy of the state from public opinion, which allows politicians to ignore or deviate from mass preferences and get away with it. The democratic frustration perspective presumes that opinion would correlate with policy if only policy makers were responsive. This can be challenged by arguing that correlations between opinion and policy do not provide evidence that policy makers are responsive. Both government responsiveness and counterfeit consensus perspectives are caricatures of how opinion and policy are actually related.
