Public Opinion, Public Policy, and Democracy

Abstract

Debates about the impact of public opinion on public policy are organized around a “should” and an “is.” Almost everyone agrees that in a democracy public policy should be strongly affected by public opinion. But there is a lot of disagreement about how strong the effect is. Is it as strong as it should be, meaning that the democratic political process is working well? Or is it much weaker, meaning that the democratic political process is working badly?