PART I History, Philosophy of Public Opinion and Public Opinion Research [17:13 2/8/2007 4984-Donsbach-Ch01.tex] Paper: a4 Job No: 4984 Donsbach: Public Opinion Research (SAGE Handbook) Page: 7 7–24 [17:13 2/8/2007 4984-Donsbach-Ch01.tex] Paper: a4 Job No: 4984 Donsbach: Public Opinion Research (SAGE Handbook) Page: 8 7–24 Section 1 The Nature of Public Opinion [17:13 2/8/2007 4984-Donsbach-Ch01.tex] Paper: a4 Job No: 4984 Donsbach: Public Opinion Research (SAGE Handbook) Page: 9 7–24 [17:13 2/8/2007 4984-Donsbach-Ch01.tex] Paper: a4 Job No: 4984 Donsbach: Public Opinion Research (SAGE Handbook) Page: 10 7–24 1 The Public and Public Opinion in Political Theories Vincent Price The origins of our modern conception of research might conceivably help to inform, public opinion are usually traced to lib- if not resolve.1 In view of a general model eral democratic theories of the eighteenth of democracy as collective decision making, century, with precursors reaching all the this chapter considers the variable sorts of way back to ancient Greece (Palmer, 1936). expectations democratic theories harbor for And yet the connections between empirical political leaders, news media, publics, and public opinion research and political the- citizens. ory have been remarkably loose. Despite the encouragement of leading researchers such as Berelson (1952), Lazarsfeld (1957), ENTWINED CONCEPTS: PUBLIC, and Noelle-Neumann (1979), public opinion OPINION AND DEMOCRACY researchers have only recently taken up the task of trying to integrate empirical and The concept of public opinion emerged during philosophical models (e.g., Herbst, 1993; the Enlightenment, but the separate concepts Price & Neijens, 1997; Althaus, 2006). of the public and opinion have much older This chapter explores some fundamental histories, each with a range of meanings that connections between public opinion research continue to inform their use to the present and democratic theories, with several interre- day (Price, 1992). Opinion was used primarily lated aims: (a) illustrating briefly the historical in two ways. In an epistemological sense, span of democratic theories and the wide opinion indicated a particular and to some range of views they adopt with respect to citi- extent inferior way of knowing, distinguishing zens, publics, public opinion and governance; a matter of judgment (an “opinion”) from a (b) considering some of the normative models matter known as fact or asserted on faith. In implicit in public opinion research; and a second sense, the term was used to indicate (c) exploring some of the enduring theoretical regard, esteem, or reputation (as in holding a tensions, dialectics, and debates that empirical high opinion of someone). Both senses relate [17:13 2/8/2007 4984-Donsbach-Ch01.tex] Paper: a4 Job No: 4984 Donsbach: Public Opinion Research (SAGE Handbook) Page: 11 7–24 12 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH to the notion of judgment, though in the one legitimacy, largely in rhetorical fashion and case the emphasis is on the uncertain truth- without any fixed sociological referent. Hence value of something believed, whereas in the the term remained, in some sense intention- other the emphasis is on a moral dimension ally, vague. It was linked quite explicitly with of judgment, that is, approval or censure. free and open discussion of political affairs As we shall see, political theories variously among educated men of financial means. seize upon one or the other of these senses Yet it often acquired (as in the writings of of “opinion,” at times emphasizing cognition Rousseau, 1762/1968) an abstract and almost and knowledge and at others moral sensibility super-human quality as an expression of or sentiment. The term public, from the Latin the common will, divined through reasoned publicus meaning “the people,” similarly had debate, and framed as a powerful new tribunal several discernable meanings. In some of its for checking and thus controlling, as right earliest uses it referred to common access, would have it, the actions of the state. with areas open to the general population Despite these communitarian origins, deemed public (Habermas, 1962/1989). In a however, the concept of public opinion came second usage, public referred to the common to acquire much of its contemporary meaning interest and common good, not in the sense of from its deployment in the work of later access (or belonging to) but rather in the sense liberal thinkers, particularly “utilitarian” of representing (that is, in the name of) the philosophers such as Mill (1820/1937) and whole of the people. Thus the monarch under Bentham (1838/1962). While continuing the theory of royal absolutism was the sole to argue for full publicity of government public figure, representing by divine right the affairs and strongly advocating freedom of entirety of the kingdom in his person (Baker, expression, these analysts saw the polity less 1990). as the coming together of separate minds The compound concept public opinion reasoning together toward a shared, common came into widespread use only in the will than as a collection of individuals eighteenth century and as the product of attempting to maximize their own interests several significant historical trends, primarily and utilities. The harmonization of these the growth of literacy, expansion of the conflicting interests was best achieved not merchant classes, the Protestant Reformation, through public reasoning to any consensual and the circulation of literature enabled by conclusion, but instead through rule by the printing press. An ascendant class of majority, requiring regular election and literate and well-read European merchants, plebiscite, with the state functioning as a congregating in new popular institutions such referee to individuals and groups vying to as salons and coffee houses and emboldened achieve their economic and political ends. by new liberal philosophies arguing for basic “A key proposition,” writes Held (1996, individual freedoms, began to articulate a p. 95), “was that the collective good could critique of royal absolutism and to assert be realized only if individuals interacted in their interests in political affairs (Habermas, competitive exchanges pursuing their utility 1962/1989). In early usage, public opinion with minimal state interference.” Thus public referred to the social customs and manners opinion was wedded to the liberal idea of of this growing class of prosperous “men of an unregulated “marketplace of ideas,” with letters” but by the close of the century it was the majority view, ascertained through a free being used in an expressly political context, popular vote, as its operational definition. often in conjunction with cousin phrases such The early development and use of the as “common will,” and “public conscience.” concept of public opinion, then, were part and Baker (1990) argues that with the dissolution parcel of the Enlightenment project to replace of absolute monarchical power, both the European monarchies with civil democra- crown and its opponents alike invoked public cies. What the Enlightenment accomplished, opinion as a new source of authority and according to Peters (1995), was to transform [17:13 2/8/2007 4984-Donsbach-Ch01.tex] Paper: a4 Job No: 4984 Donsbach: Public Opinion Research (SAGE Handbook) Page: 12 7–24 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION IN POLITICAL THEORIES 13 the classical assembly of the people—in of direct democracy, predicated on complete Athenian democracy a physical, face-to-face economic and political equality. forum—into a mass-mediated, fictive body These were then supplemented and constituted by newspapers bringing people expanded by twentieth-century models, together, not in physical space but in shared drawing in various ways upon all four stories and conversations at a distance. “The basic formulations but principally from the imagined public is not, however, imaginary: republican and liberal traditions (Habermas, in acting upon symbolic representations of 1966). Among these are theories Held ‘the public’ the public can come to exist (1996) names competitive elitism, neo- as a real actor” (p. 16). Implicitly, notions pluralism, legal democracy and participatory of the public and public opinion followed democracy. Each in various ways resulted the complete arc of thinking about just what from grappling with perceived problems of forms such “imagined assemblies” might take, the public in the face of modern industrial life. from highly communitarian formulations of These perceived ailments of the body politic the public as a fluid and amorphous group included: a poorly informed and emotional of freely associating citizens willing to think mass citizenry subject to demagoguery and debate in consideration of the good of and manipulation; widening inequalities in the whole community, to highly individualist private economic, and hence political, power; formulations equating it with the mass of expanding centralization of government citizens freely pursuing their personal and and bureaucratic regulation; a growing group interests as they wished, and by and pervasive lack of citizen concern for majority vote aggregating those interests to the collective welfare; and the political choose wise political leaders. withdrawal of citizens who feel inefficacious and effectively disenfranchised. Worry over the emotionality and irra- tionality of ordinary citizens, and a near NOT ONE, BUT MANY, DEMOCRATIC complete lack of confidence in their ability THEORIES to discriminate intelligently