Politicians don't pander: political manipulation and the loss of democratic responsiveness

TLDR

Public opinion polls are ubiquitous, yet the authors argue that politicians do not tailor policy to poll results as widely believed. The book asks whether elected officials truly respond to the broad public or merely to the narrow interests of specific groups. By examining Clinton’s failed health‑care reform and Gingrich’s Contract with America, the authors show how public‑opinion research and media were used to reshape voters’ minds. The authors find that leaders routinely ignore public preferences, instead following party philosophies and interest‑group agendas, and that they use opinion data to manipulate public opinion, a strategy that fuels media conflict focus and heightens distrust of government.

Abstract

Public opinion polls are everywhere. Journalists report their results without hesitation, and political activists of all kinds spend millions of dollars on them, fuelling the widespread assumption that elected officials pander to public opinion -that they tailor their policy decisions to the results of polls. In this provocative and engagingly written book, the authors argue that the reality is quite the opposite. In fact, when not facing election, contemporary presidents and members of Congress routinely ignore the public's policy preferences and follow their own political philosophies, as well as those of their party's activists, their contributors and their interest group allies. devote substantial time, effort and money to tracking public opinion, not for the purposes of policymaking, but to change public opinion - to determine how to craft their public statements and actions to win support for the policies they and their supporters want. Taking two recent, dramtic episodes - President Clinton's failed health care reform campaign and Newt Gingrich's Contract with America - as examples, the authors show how both used public opinion research and the media to change the public's mind. Such orchestrated displays help explain the media's preoccupation with political conflict strategy and, the authors argue, have propelled levels of public distrust and fear of government to record highs. Revisiting the fundamental premises of representative democracy, this accessible book asks us to reexamine whether our government really responds to the broad public or to the narrower interests and values of certain groups. And with the 2000 campaign season heating up, Politicians Don't Pander could not be more timely.