Union Political Action and Opinion Polls in a Democratic Society

Abstract

The use of public opinion polls as a basis for the formulation of public policy has again come to the fore amidst the current controversy ooncerning the role of labor unions in the political life of American society. The principal purpose of this paper is to document the authors' belief that such a use of polls requires a high degree jof skillful and cautious interpretation, and that any legislative decisions based primarily on the philosophy underlying the usual type of polling technique may contain many potential pitfalls. Our belief is not a new one, and has been stated by other students of the problem. However, the limitations of the polling approach to public policy have not been explored before in the case of union members' attitudes toward political activity by their unions and the use of their dues for such activity.