Published in:The Role of Public Opinion Research in the Democratic Process: Insights from Politicians, Journalists, and the General Public ; volume:17, number:2, year:2023, pages:249-272
Description:
This study reveals the existence of a paradox in how the public views polling within the democratic process. Specifically, even though the public believes that it can influence policymaking, it considers public opinion polls not as useful as other, less representative forms of public input, such as comments at town hall meetings. Analyzing data from multiple surveys conducted in the United States of America, we find no evidence for the democratic representation hypothesis with respect to polling. Comparisons across stakeholders (public, journalists, and politicians) demonstrate that general perceptions of inputs into the democratic process are similar, which confirms the citizen-elite congruence hypothesis. However, unlike members of the public, experts are more likely to believe that public opinion polls are the optimal method by which the public can successfully inform policymaking, a finding consistent with the legitimization hypothesis. With respect to perceptions of politicians, we found substantial differences regarding party registration with Democrats and Independents favoring public opinion polling and Republicans preferring alternative methods (e.g., town hall meetings) of informing policymakers.