Book Description

Covering the intricate facets of America's most important democratic tradition, this book serves as an important resource to understand how citizens' views are translated into governmental action. Public Opinion and Polling around the World presents a thorough review of public opinion from its roots in colonial America to its role in today's emerging democracies. More than 100 entries prepared by top scholars examine the 200-year history of public opinion, measurement methodologies with an emphasis on telephone interviews and Internet polls, and key figures like George Gallup and Elmo Roper, who created their own polling systems. An analysis of theories compares schools of thought from the fields of psychology, sociology, and economics and explores how people form opinions. A fascinating snapshot of the public's current views on economic issues, foreign policy, gender, gay rights, and other hot-button topics observes patterns across genders, race, ethnic origins, class, and religion in regions all over the world. Students, academicians, and political observers will discover answers to such questions as, "does public opinion shape the behavior of government?" 110 A-Z entries on how public opinion works, how it is measured, and public thinking on key issues More than 115 contributions from distinguished scholars of political science and sociology at top universities including Princeton, Harvard, and Stanford An appendix including original survey questionnaires 175 graphs show changes in public opinion and support key points in the entries Detailed, up-to-date, scholarly bibliography of recommended reading and websites for further research on public opinion and polling