The Role of the U. S. Senate Staff in the Opinion Linkage Process: Population Policy

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess the opinion linkage process between Senators and their staff. On the issue of population and family planning the following relationships were examined: 1) between the staff and the Senators perception of public opinion 2) between these 2 perceptions and actual public opinion 3) between staff and Senator attitudes and 4) between staff perception of the Senators attitudes and the actual attitudes of the Senator. On the issue of population and family planning staff members do not seem to influence the Senators attitudes or their perception of public attitudes. Both staff and Senators underestimated propulation policy public opinion with the staff underestimating to a greater degree than the Senators.