Vox Populi: Democracy In Crisis

Studies Discussed

Politicians Don't Pander: Political Manipulation
and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness
(University of Chicago Press, 2000)
by Lawrence R. Jacobs and Robert Y. Shapiro

Book Summary

Public opinion polls are everywhere. Journalists report results without hesitation, and political activists of all kinds spend millions of dollars on them, fueling the widespread assumption that elected officials "pander" to public opinion -- that they tailor policy decisions to the results of polls.

In this book, the authors argue that the reality is quite the opposite. In fact, when not facing election, contemporary presidents and members of Congress routinely ignore the public's policy preferences and follow their own political philosophies, as well as those of their party's activists, their contributors and their interest group allies. Politicians devote substantial time, effort and money to tracking public opinion, not for the purposes of policymaking, but to change public opinion -- to determine how to craft public statements and actions to win support for policies they and their supporters want.

Taking two recent episodes -- President Clinton's failed health care reform campaign and Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" -- as examples, the authors show how both used public opinion research and the media to change the public's mind. Such orchestrated displays help explain the media's preoccupation with political conflict and strategy and, the authors argue, have propelled levels of public distrust and fear of government to record highs.

"'Polling has turned leaders into followers,' laments columnist Marueen Dowd of The New York Times. Well, that's news definitely not fit to print say two academics who have examined the polls and the legislative records of recent presidents to see just how responsive chief executives are to the polls. Their conclusion: not much. . . . In fact, their review and analyses found that public opinion polls on policy appear to have increasingly less, not more, influence on government policies."

- Richard Morin, The Washington Post

Read an excerpt from Politicians Don’t Pander

Purchase the book (368 pp, 37 graphs, Cloth $48.00, Paper $17.00)