Public Support for Policies: Public Opinion and Policy Making

Abstract

Increasing policy feasibility is a frequent argument for policy relevance of research on public attitudes to policies. Therefore, this text discusses the interlinkage of public opinion and the policy-making process. The text focuses on the role of public opinion surveys as a source of information about public attitudes towards policies and policy instruments. Following a discussion of conditions of policy responsiveness related to poll measures of public support, public support is argued to emerge from public opinion as a communication process or a process of social organization, rather than to reflect a collective state of mind. As such, public support constitutes one of many possible results of the public opinion communication process - a result which is temporary and thenceforth subject to the ongoing process. It is not reducible to survey responses as expressions of individual attitudes toward policies, which present an oversimplified and partial picture of reality. Surveys, however, constitute an important source of information for researchers and policy makers. Therefore, we need to use and interpret them accordingly. Some recommendations are proposed to improve the current practice.