ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role that polls played in the regime change in Peru. According to Pierre Bourdieu, "The fundamental effect of polls is to create the idea that a unanimous public opinion exists in order to legitimate policy". In Jurgen Habermas's view, authentic public opinion can only be formed through a process of rational-critical debate among citizens. Such debates take place within a public sphere, which is an autonomous terrain between state and society where citizens are free to become informed and exchange views without interference by state institutions. The chapter focuses on the rhetorical and symbolic uses of poll results in the unfolding of recent events in Peru—the ways in which polls were interpreted and reinterpreted by political elites and the news media in Peru. The collapse of trust in government, especially in political parties, became a touchstone in Peruvian political discourse in conjunction with the 1990 presidential election.
