The Political Uses of Public Opinion Lessons from the Estate Tax Repeal

• Published in: The Real World of Democratic Theory pp. 180 - 218
• Main Authors: Birney, Mayling, Shapiro, Ian, Graetz, Michael J
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Princeton Princeton University Press 22.11.2010
• Subjects: Agricultural geography; Agricultural land; Agricultural sciences; Agriculture; Behavioral sciences; Biological sciences; Economic disciplines; Economics; Election forecasting; Employment; Estate taxes; Family farms; Farmlands; Farms; Governance; Government; Human societies; Income taxes; Interest groups; Labor economics; Motivation; Occupations; Personality psychology; Political change; Political elections; Political interest groups; Political processes; Political reform; Political science; Politicians; Politics; Polls; Psychology; Public opinion; Self interest; Social attitudes; Social groups; Social psychology; Sociology; Tax benefits; Tax exemptions; Tax reform; Taxation; Taxes; Transfer taxes
• ISBN: 9780691090009; 0691090009; 0691090017; 9780691090016
• DOI: 10.1515/9781400836833.180

In the previous chapter it was noted that citizens in democracies are not generally expected to justify their views to others. But this does not mean that politicians are uninterested in understanding those views. On the contrary, each year politicians pour millions of dollars into polling, focus groups, and other instruments to inform themselves about every nook and cranny of public opinion. They have an obvious, and much studied, motivation for doing this: the need to win elections. Less often attended to than the role of public opinion in electoral strategies is the subject that concerns us here: how does