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Silent Voices : Public Opinion and Political Participation in America / Adam J. Berinsky.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2013]Copyright date: ©2004Edition: Course BookDescription: 1 online resource (240 p.) : 16 line illus. 29 tablesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691123783
  • 9781400850747
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 303.3 303.38
LOC classification:
  • HN90 .P8 B47 2013
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Representation, Public Opinion, and the Voice of the People -- One. Opinion Polling and the Silencing of Political Voice -- Two. The Search for the Voice of the People: Considering the Unspoken -- Three. The Dynamics of Racial Policy Opinion, 1972-1994 -- Four. Social Welfare Policy and Public Opinion, 1972-1996 -- Five. The Changing Context of Public Opinion Concerning the Vietnam War, 1964-1972 -- Conclusion. Public Opinion and Political Voice -- Appendix to Chapter 3 -- Appendix to Chapter 4 -- Appendix to Chapter 5 -- References -- Index
Summary: Over the past century, opinion polls have come to pervade American politics. Despite their shortcomings, the notion prevails that polls broadly represent public sentiment. But do they? In Silent Voices, Adam Berinsky presents a provocative argument that the very process of collecting information on public preferences through surveys may bias our picture of those preferences. In particular, he focuses on the many respondents who say they "don't know" when asked for their views on the political issues of the day. Using opinion poll data collected over the past forty years, Berinsky takes an increasingly technical area of research--public opinion--and synthesizes recent findings in a coherent and accessible manner while building on this with his own findings. He moves from an in-depth treatment of how citizens approach the survey interview, to a discussion of how individuals come to form and then to express opinions on political matters in the context of such an interview, to an examination of public opinion in three broad policy areas--race, social welfare, and war. He concludes that "don't know" responses are often the result of a systematic process that serves to exclude particular interests from the realm of recognized public opinion. Thus surveys may then echo the inegalitarian shortcomings of other forms of political participation and even introduce new problems altogether.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781400850747

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Representation, Public Opinion, and the Voice of the People -- One. Opinion Polling and the Silencing of Political Voice -- Two. The Search for the Voice of the People: Considering the Unspoken -- Three. The Dynamics of Racial Policy Opinion, 1972-1994 -- Four. Social Welfare Policy and Public Opinion, 1972-1996 -- Five. The Changing Context of Public Opinion Concerning the Vietnam War, 1964-1972 -- Conclusion. Public Opinion and Political Voice -- Appendix to Chapter 3 -- Appendix to Chapter 4 -- Appendix to Chapter 5 -- References -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Over the past century, opinion polls have come to pervade American politics. Despite their shortcomings, the notion prevails that polls broadly represent public sentiment. But do they? In Silent Voices, Adam Berinsky presents a provocative argument that the very process of collecting information on public preferences through surveys may bias our picture of those preferences. In particular, he focuses on the many respondents who say they "don't know" when asked for their views on the political issues of the day. Using opinion poll data collected over the past forty years, Berinsky takes an increasingly technical area of research--public opinion--and synthesizes recent findings in a coherent and accessible manner while building on this with his own findings. He moves from an in-depth treatment of how citizens approach the survey interview, to a discussion of how individuals come to form and then to express opinions on political matters in the context of such an interview, to an examination of public opinion in three broad policy areas--race, social welfare, and war. He concludes that "don't know" responses are often the result of a systematic process that serves to exclude particular interests from the realm of recognized public opinion. Thus surveys may then echo the inegalitarian shortcomings of other forms of political participation and even introduce new problems altogether.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Jul 2021)