Public opinion, elites, and democracy

Abstract

Building on Philip Converse's understanding of public opinion, John Zaller sees the evidence for the public's “nonattitudes” as reflecting individuals’ ambivalence concerning political issues. Because neither individuals nor the public collectively have what Zaller would call real attitudes, he concludes that the effectiveness of democracy rests on competition among intellectual and political elites. In truth, however, the public has many real attitudes that depend heavily on elite leadership, in ways that Converse did not initially emphasize but that are consistent with both his observations and Zaller's model of mass opinion. The quality of the public's attitudes are, however, a point of serious contention.