Government Responsiveness to Public Opinion

This week in chapter five we focused on public opinion and its importance in our democracies. We talked about the extent we should trust the mass public and how we could effectively conduct surveys to accurately represent citizens. We learned about the importance of random sampling and the ability of certain factors to skew public opinion polling. Finally, we talked about political socialization and various elements that contributes to the formation of our political opinions. However, I want to focus this blog post on the extent in which our government is responsive to public opinion.

The question I want to look into today is the responsiveness of our government to public opinion. My standard for evaluation is based around simply does the government enact policies that are desired by the public as seen through public opinion polls and research. To focus my research I chose a few key issues central to American society to look into the opinion of the general public and see if our government is enacting laws to reflect the desires of the American public. The issues that I want to look into are gun regulation, universal health care, a southern border wall, and climate change.

To begin, I want to look at gun regulation, a hot topic of today. Guns are something that most Americans feel strongly about but, somehow, our government has done nothing to better regulate gun usage. A poll done by Gallup Polls revealed that actually 55% of Americans believe that gun laws should be increased to be more strict on the sale of firearms. However, our government has passed zero laws or regulation attempting to better regulate guns to meet the desires of the people. In addition, in the past few days many, many Americans have come out in expressing extreme dissatisfaction in our gun laws. A heartfelt video by comedian Jimmy Kimmel shows the extreme sadness that some Americans feel with regards to gun regulation and lack of government control over the issue.

Another interesting issue regarding American public opinion and government action is the southern border wall. This border wall was heavily pressed by president Donald Trump as something that Americans want and something that would be central to his time in office. However, in reality, most Americans don’t really care about building a border wall. In a poll done by the Pew Research Center, only 23% of Americans view the building of the border wall as something very important to them. In reality, 40% of Americans view the wall as actually not important at all. So, all in all, Trumps action towards building a wall simply is not reflective of American public opinion.

Thirdly, another thing that Americans feel strongly about is climate change. In a poll done by the Yale Program on climate change and communication showed that over 50% of Americans in each state wanted the United States to stay in the Paris Agreement for climate change. But, Donald Trump, disregarding American public opinion, pulled out of the agreement. All in all, it is easy to see through these major political issues that many wishes of the American people are not always followed through by our government. Through gun control, immigration, and climate change it is easy to see that our government is not extremely successful in ensuring the implementation of effective policy to meet the wishes of the general public.

However, there are definitely some limitations to my research here and also some situations when government does follow the opinion of the public more closely. First of all, our government is set up with various checks and balances to ensure that our government does not do anything drastic so many times it can be difficult to get things done in our government. We also have issues of dual legitimacy and a two party system that also can result in massive ineffectiveness and gridlock in our government. But, one poll done by the pew research center did show that 58% of Americans did think government was responsible for providing some sort of health care policy, which did result in the implementation of Obama care. So, overall, our government certainly struggles to enact legislation that follows the opinion of the public but there are definitely major limitations and some successes, but, all in all, the government should attempt to do a better job of passing legislation to better meet the desires of those in the american public.

Sources:

Gallup, Inc. “Guns.” Gallup.com, news.gallup.com/poll/1645/guns.aspx.

Kent, David. “Majority Says Government Has Responsibility to Ensure Health Coverage for All.” Pew Research Center, 23 June 2017, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/23/public-support-for-single-payer-health-coverage-grows-driven-by-democrats/ft_17-06-23_healthcare_640px/.

Suls, Rob. “Less than Half the Public Views Border Wall as an Important Goal for U.S. Immigration Policy.” Pew Research Center, 6 Jan. 2017, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/06/less-than-half-the-public-views-border-wall-as-an-important-goal-for-u-s-immigration-policy/.

“Majorities of Americans in Every State Support Participation in the Paris Agreement.” Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/paris_agreement_by_state/.

4 Responses to "Government Responsiveness to Public Opinion"

Montgomery Thornburn says:

October 9, 2017 at 8:52 pm

I think you make some great points about how some laws in the U.S. do not respect the wants of American citizens, and that’s concerning. I recognize that true democracies should always respond to the will of the people,but I also believe that a government that can somewhat distance itself from the screams of the crowd is better poised to deal with sudden changes in the political climate. When disasters and atrocities like, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, genocides, etc. occur there is always mass confusion and huge portions of the populace will suddenly scream for action without really knowing what decision is best. In these situations government actors need separation from public opinion so they can make the best decision for long term success rather than decide based on a gut reaction to the disaster. Our government has been designed to not let majority tyranny ruin the country and while it may mean that every law does not necessarily reflect what americans want at the moment, it makes the government more stable. I think that the stability of our government is amongst the most valuable assets of this nation and is what allows our economy and culture to flourish. I think it is an impossible ideal for a government to always do what is best for every citizen while following the majority opinion which makes the distance between people and government necessary.
Yanbin Zhang says:

October 10, 2017 at 9:47 pm

It’s strongly agreed among people that the responsiveness of government to public opinions is really important to a democratic society since one of the very initial need of government is to make the decisions reflecting what ordinary people want. It is part of the foundation of popular sovereignty. But the nature of the relationship between government and public opinion somehow decides that the government would and could never completely do what major people want.
According to English economist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the most difficult duty of government is “in conciliating the public opinion, in correcting it when erroneous, “ And at the same time, Bentham thought the public opinion is a useful check on authority and rulers,” To the pernicious exercise of power of government it is the only check”. Therefore, the relationship between the government and public opinion is not simply that the government works to carry out what people want for the society. Indeed, it is a mechanism of mutual supervising. In other words, if the government would always reflect public opinion and carry out their policies effectively, there is no more need of public opinion in that case.
Based the role of public opinion, it is more possible and realistic to say that the government is working for the collective goods for the overall society. Just like what we talked about before, the different group of people might shift on different issue. What government is expected to do is to make such policies that every would be benefited on somes issues while they may be dissatisfied on others. But the government would eventually work within an acceptable limitation to the public to keep staying their office.
Kevin Todd says:

October 11, 2017 at 9:55 am

I think you bring up interesting points regarding our government’s responses to public opinion. I think it is important to note that the government is always the one where the fingers are pointed at. it is extremely tough and practically impossible for any government to satisfy the needs and wants of every citizen. Every citizen has different preferences and views towards the many political and societal aspects of our nation. I agree that the government should do something to make buying guns more strict but they cannot do too much or go too far that could possibly result in a situation that crosses the line of the 2nd Amendment. Obviously gun laws is a touchy issue to deal with especially after the recent Las Vegas shooting but instead of blaming it on gun laws why not look at it a different way such as security? Maybe if the government had been more strict on security getting in hotels and buildings this could have possibly been prevented. It is very tough to put the blame solely on the government in these specific issues. Major events and Trump’s absurd proposal to build a wall clearly raises madness in society’s eye and causes their opinions to change rapidly. It is obvious Trump’s views are extremely questionable but I think the media’s portrayal of those certain subjects does not help. I think the media radicalizes it a bit and causes the public to have a different view than they would have if it was shown in a different way. It is very tough for the government to really know what is best for this country due to the lack of political knowledge and interest that our citizens have.
Marcin Jerzewski says:

October 23, 2017 at 3:53 pm

In your blog post, you seem to discuss democratic responsiveness of the U.S. government by looking at aggregate data, i.e. summary statistics about the U.S. population as a whole. I believe that you could enrich your inquiry by posing an additional question, “What is the extent to which various social groups find their policy preferences reflect in actual government policy?” For instance, in case of gun control, there is evidence that support for upholding the status quo comes from predominantly white, rural and relatively less educated individuals (I infer this from the demographics of the NRA and gun owners overall; see, respectively, Winkler 2015 and Parker et al 2017). As of June 2017, 55% of Caucasians support gun laws, compared to 25% of African Americans and 28% of Hispanics (Pew Research Center 2017). This state of the matter begs a question, “With regard to gun control, why are policy outcomes more likely to reflect the preferences of whites?” I believe that looking at government responsiveness at the level of individual groups is important, as it has broad implications, particularly given the growing racial and ethnic diversity and the ongoing politics of democratic inclusion in America.

Winkler 2015: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/10/19/the-nra-will-fall-its-inevitable/?utm_term=.970244b68bea
Parker et al 2017: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/
Pew Research Center 2017: http://www.people-press.org/2017/06/22/public-views-about-guns/#race

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