Vox Populi: Democracy In Crisis

Studies Discussed

The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans' Policy Preferences (University of Chicago Press, 1992)
By Benjamin I. Page and Robert Y. Shapiro

Book Overview

This study is a comprehensive critical survey of the policy preferences of the American public and is a definitive work on American public opinion. Drawing on an enormous body of public opinion data, the authors provide a rich portrait of the political views of Americans, from the 1930s to 1990. They cover all types of domestic and foreign policy issues from MX missile to racial equality to welfare to abortion.  But they also consider how opinions vary by age, gender, race and region.

The authors demonstrate that, notwithstanding fluctuations in the opinions of individuals, collective public opinion is remarkably coherent; it reflects a stable system of values shared by the majority of Americans and it responds sensitively to new events, arguments and information reported in the mass media. While documenting some alarming cases of manipulation, Page and Shapiro solidly establish the soundness and value of collective political opinion.

Purchase The Rational Public (490 pp, 18 tables, 73 figures; Paper $22.00)