Pathologies of Studying Public Opinion, Political Communication, and Democratic Responsiveness

Research on democratic representation and public opinion formation has largely ignored one another. Once one considers the reality of the political communication environment, a fundamental tension between these two literatures emerges. In this essay, I review work on each, highlighting problems with...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPolitical communication Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 467 - 492
Main Author Druckman, James N.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington Routledge 03.07.2014
Taylor & Francis LLC
Subjects
Democracy
Opinion formation
Pathology
Political communication
Political representation
Politics
Public opinion
Public opinion research
responsiveness
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Summary:Research on democratic representation and public opinion formation has largely ignored one another. Once one considers the reality of the political communication environment, a fundamental tension between these two literatures emerges. In this essay, I review work on each, highlighting problems with both how "quality opinion" is often defined and how representation is typically studied. I then offer a way forward.
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ISSN:1058-4609
1091-7675
DOI:10.1080/10584609.2013.852643