ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on finding movements of public opinion at the margin, movements that cumulate over time to produce a politics that changes remarkably, if not with quakelike suddenness. To assert that change at the margin of public opinion drives politics is almost the same as asserting that public opinion is stable and predictable. A defining characteristic of the political issue must be able to imagine reasonable people advocating either side. Changing how the public feels about issues is something politicians can do. Indeed, it is something even fairly obscure politicians can do. The chapter proposes an information-seeking and -storing process in which consequential opinion is also aggregated over similar issues. Scholarly analysis of "public opinion" became—and in general remains today—the analysis of private opinions about public affairs. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in subsequent chapters of this book.
