Does the American government do what Americans want it to do? In an earlier entry, “Is the Love Real?”
(January 12, 2016), this blog reported findings from research conducted by Paul
Burstein.[1] That researcher looked at how much the American
federal government followed what Americans wanted it to do in terms of 60 issues. Here is what that posting reported:
Of
the sixty policy proposals, public opinion polls were silent on 40% of
them. Of the 60% that had polling
information, Congress seems to abide by public sentiment 50% of the time. As for the “silent” 40%, there is no reaction
to whether the proposals should be considered, much less as to whether the
policy proposal should be adopted or discarded or adopted in a modified
fashion. As for soliciting the attention
of interest groups, they responded to only three of the 60 proposals. Again, the indifference is sufficiently
palpable.
But should one be surprised? Most of what government does is of little concern
to most Americans. Should an Interstate
plan call for this or that routing option or should it implement a certain maintenance
schedule? Who cares unless one owns
property in the affected area? In short,
this question of how reflective governmental policy is of citizen desires is not
that easy to answer.
In Burstein’s account, he goes go on
to cite opposing findings among social scientists. James A. Stimson published his findings in
1995 that argue not only does public opinion influence policy decisions, but
there is nothing else that matters. Some
other researchers agree, but still other ones disagree. Agreeing, in an earlier, 1993, article, is
Robert Erikson (who this writer found himself in his class back in the late
1960s on the campus of Florida State University – surely, he does not remember
the encounter).
Yet, citing a review article by Jeff Manza
and Clem Brooks, Burstein informs the reader that political sociologists don’t
agree. They don’t just disagree; they
don’t even consider this factor in their research. Actually, Burstein doesn’t clarify whether political
sociologists ignore this factor due to their opinion that it does not fall
within their theoretical concerns or that they find, through their research, it
doesn’t matter.
Burstein summarizes both camps with
the following:
… on balance, there is great support
for the view that public opinion consistently influences policy, sometimes very
strongly, not only in the United States, but in other countries as well, over
time and on a wide range of issues … [According to Soroka and Wlezien] “in
major policy domains … the people ultimately decide” what policy will be,
especially on issues the public cares about.[2]
This finding is not limited to the United States, but to advanced
countries in general and that includes, surprisingly, the Russian Federation as
well.
Elsewhere in
this blog, a recurring message has been that Americans in general have
decreased their level of engagement with politics and governance. This lack of involvement serves to encourage
this writer to write this blog; he feels it indicates that his fellow citizens
are not sufficiently exhibiting federalist values, of acting in accordance with
the obligations of a partnership – it’s like missing the board meetings of a company.
So, reading
that governments do follow public wishes in general, maybe citizens not
engaging in an ongoing fashion is not that important. This then needs to be further looked at and
this blog will do so in the future. A
question for now is: what specifically
should be asked of how this influence is determined and measured? While there is general agreement with this
more generalized sense that public opinion matters, a more telling question might
be: how do they influence public
policy?
Researchers have
turned their related concerns to an array of circumstances in which that
influence is exerted. That is, they are
looking at intervening factors affecting this relationship. For example, do political power holders
effectively manipulate the perceptions of the public? When this blog picks up this topic again, it
will look at the process of advocacy.
Burstein offers information in that concern.
Whatever that
research reports, hopefully the reader agrees that this notion of public influence
enjoys a central place in why and how civics teachers should teach their
subject matter. This writer can report
that the textbooks used in their central role in determining what is taught say
little over this concern.
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