Q. ILLITERACY is a hurdle in the way of healthy public opinion explain?
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The man who lacks sense enough to despise public opinion expressed in gossip will never do anything great” - this is from Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1822). It's no secret that at CommGAP, we're all big advocates for public opinion, nevertheless we need to be aware of some of the problems that public opinion poses in its role as political factor.
Everyone can think of examples of public opinion seemingly landing somewhat off the mark in elections, referenda, polls, or other manifestations of the public's will. Elites then tend to shake their heads in exasperation about what they might call "public ignorance."
Public opinion scholar Vincent Price lists some of the problems of public opinion that may prevent it from being the ideal expression of public will:
- Lack of knowledge
- Insufficient cognitive ability and inadequate comprehension of political processes
- Limited access to information and communication resources
The danger is obvious: all democratic states have some element of popular vote, some even practice direct citizen democracy. If citizens that are legitimate to vote on political issues are not qualified to actually comprehend, let alone judge such issues, their vote can prevent political progress and even do harm. To solve the problem of an incompetent public, Walter Lippmann proposed to take political decisions out of the hands of ‘ordinary’ citizens and install a system of experts to take over. John Dewey called for an education system that enables people to find and comprehend relevant information. Habermas, on the other hand, proposes that the actual problem lies in what he calls the re-feudalization of the public sphere. He argues that since the first half of the 19th century the public sphere has been dominated by a mutual dependence of political system, economy, and mass media. As a result, citizens have limited access to the public sphere, which prevents deliberative dialogue, which again might lead to politically unfortunate voting decisions.
Everyone can think of examples of public opinion seemingly landing somewhat off the mark in elections, referenda, polls, or other manifestations of the public's will. Elites then tend to shake their heads in exasperation about what they might call "public ignorance."
Public opinion scholar Vincent Price lists some of the problems of public opinion that may prevent it from being the ideal expression of public will:
- Lack of knowledge
- Insufficient cognitive ability and inadequate comprehension of political processes
- Limited access to information and communication resources
The danger is obvious: all democratic states have some element of popular vote, some even practice direct citizen democracy. If citizens that are legitimate to vote on political issues are not qualified to actually comprehend, let alone judge such issues, their vote can prevent political progress and even do harm. To solve the problem of an incompetent public, Walter Lippmann proposed to take political decisions out of the hands of ‘ordinary’ citizens and install a system of experts to take over. John Dewey called for an education system that enables people to find and comprehend relevant information. Habermas, on the other hand, proposes that the actual problem lies in what he calls the re-feudalization of the public sphere. He argues that since the first half of the 19th century the public sphere has been dominated by a mutual dependence of political system, economy, and mass media. As a result, citizens have limited access to the public sphere, which prevents deliberative dialogue, which again might lead to politically unfortunate voting decisions.
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