Tides of Consent: How Public Opinion Shapes American Politics Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Tides of Consent: How Public Opinion Shapes American Politics Book

This book tracks movement in American public opinion. It examines moods for public policy that cycle over decades. It looks at shorter term movements as the public approves or disapproves politicians, trusts or distrusts government. It is distinctive in that it focuses always on locating the unobserved true opinion that lies beneath, turning away from the superficial polls by which we come to know the real thing. It argues that public opinion is decisive in American politics and it locates the citizens who produce this influential change as a quite small subset of the American electorate.Read More

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  • Product Description

    Politics is a trial in which those in government - and those who aspire to be - make proposals, debate alternatives, and pass laws. Then the jury of public opinion decides. It likes the proposals or actions or it does not. It trusts the actors or it doesn't. It moves, always at the margin, and then those who benefit from the movement are declared winners. This book is about that public opinion response. Its most basic premise is that although pubic opinion rarely matters in a democracy, public opinion change is the exception. Public opinion rarely matters, because the public rarely cares enough to act on its concerns or preferences. Change happens only when the threshold of normal public inattention is crossed. When public opinion changes, governments rise or fall, election are won or lost, old realities give way to new demands.

  • 0521601177
  • 9780521601177
  • James A. Stimson
  • 13 September 2004
  • Cambridge University Press
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 206
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